Jatiya Party Secretary General Mujibul Haque Chunnu on Monday termed Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal as a dumb man and demanded an investigation into the money laundering of $1 billion to Singapore by a businessman and a Tk252 crore interest waiver by the Nassa Group.
Chunnu, one of the senior lawmakers of the opposition party in parliament, also demanded a statement from the finance minister while speaking on a point of order in the 24th session of the 11th National Parliament.
Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury presided over the session.
Mujibul Haque Chunnu said that today the economy of Bangladesh is not performing well.
“There is a dollar crisis, and the government is controlling imports. We also have a problem with reserves from remittances,” he said.
"In various newspapers, the name of a businessman is mentioned; amid this crisis, he owns several banks. It has been reported that he took citizenship of another country and bought a market and hotel in Singapore worth $1 billion," Chunnu added.
He said: "My point is, we are repeatedly telling the finance minister in this parliament that money is being smuggled out of Bangladesh; please take action. But the finance minister of Bangladesh is a dumb man; he does not speak.”
“I do not know how a country can be run when the finance minister does not speak, does not make any statements in parliament about the economy, and does not inform journalists about the latest situation," he remarked.
"My question is, complaints about $1 billion are surfacing; we do not know if they are true or not. If they are true, then I believe it amounts to treason," Chunnu added.
Drawing the attention of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Chunnu said: "I urge the government and the prime minister to instruct the finance minister to conduct an investigation into this matter urgently to determine if any person from Bangladesh has indeed invested these $1 billion dollars."
Regarding another business group, Chunnu said interest on Tk252 crore of the Nassa Group's loan has been waived.
"Bangladesh Bank has four reasons for waiving interest; none of these four reasons are applicable here,” Chunnu said.
“The observer of Bangladesh Bank has raised objections and said that this interest cannot be waived. Still, the interest of Tk252 crores was waived on an individual's Industrial Park loan, while the interest on the loans of the less affluent was not,” he said.
“There are many more questions about this bank. Since it is a state-owned bank, we want to know how this happened," Chunnu added.
Chunnu demanded statements from the finance minister about these two issues in parliament to understand why and how these actions were taken.
