The executive director of Transparency International, Bangladesh, Iftekharuzzaman, on Monday said that giving the opportunity of legalising ‘black money’ in budget was unconstitutional and discriminatory.
The TIB executive director came up with the remarks while talking to journalists at a press conference on the third phase of upazila parishad elections.
TIB organised the press conference at its office in Dhaka.
He said that the government in the past allowed legalising undisclosed money. 'But it was not only unconstitutional but also discriminatory.'
Mentioning that there is no scope of ‘whitening black money’ as per the constitution and laws, Iftekharuzzaman said that the government was encouraging the corrupt people to commit graft by giving such scopes.
He said that the scope of legalising undisclosed money did not work in the past. ‘This will frustrate the people and companies that earn money legally and pay taxes regularly.’
The TIB official also said that the government gave the opportunity to increase tax collection but National Board of Revenue data showed that the tax was not increased after giving such scopes.
So, he said, the opportunity to legalise undisclosed money and keeping such an option in the upcoming budget are unacceptable.
'The government is imposing 30 per cent tax on legal income of the people where it is giving the scope of legalising illegal income by imposing only 15 per cent tax which is discrimination,’ he added.
