The government has asked the management of the state-owned Agrani Bank for providing account information of National Board of Revenue Chairman Md Ghulam Hussain within seven days.
The Central Intelligence Unit of the NBR yesterday sent a letter, signed by the NBR unit’s Joint Director Dr Nurul Amin, to the deputy general manager of Agrani Bank, asking him to send information about the NBR chief’s personal and joint bank accounts, long-term deposits, FDRs, STDs, foreign currency accounts, credit cards, saving certificates, deposit schemes, and any other type of accounts.
All the accounts will be counted from July 1, 2007 to June 30 of the last fiscal year, according to the provision of 113(f) under the Income Tax Ordinance 1984.
However, it is not yet clear why the step has been taken; NBR officials would not also comment on this.
When contacted, Ghulam Hussain said it was a routine procedure of getting information on bank accounts of Bangladesh citizens.
“No one is beyond the existing income tax law,” he said.
Ghulam Hussain’s contract as the NBR chairman is to expire on January 9 next year and the government has decided not to extend the tenure, sources in the Finance Division said.
According to the sources, the NBR chairman had been lobbying for a contract extension.
Recently, Ghulam transferred 27 tax commissioners, including the director general of the NBR’s Central Intelligence Unit, to different tax offices across the country.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith on November 2 said the outgoing chairman should not have issued the transfer order.
“The NBR chairman called on me at my office and admitted his mistake,” he said.
The order was later suspended, Muhith said.
