HC rule against Shipping Cos

The High Court has issued a rule asking why measures should not be taken against foreign shipping and air cargo companies believed to be evading taxes and laundering money.

The bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar issued the rule on Tuesday after the preliminary hearing of a writ petition.

Supreme Court lawyer M Kamrul Haq Siddique filed the public interest case.

The central bank governor and the executive director of its financial intelligence unit have been given four weeks to reply.

Besides, the court asked several foreign companies and their local agents to explain their positions within the same period.

The Hong Kong-based Orient Overseas Container Line and its Bangladesh agent Continental Traders Ltd, Germany-based Hapag-Lloyd, its local agent GBX Logistics Ltd and Sri Lankan agent Aitken Spence, Dubai-based Eithad Crystal Cargo of Etihat Airways, its local agent GSA Cargo Ltd and Sri Lankan agent Speed Air Cargo Net, and UK-based Allport Cargo Services have been directed to respond.

The petition claimed that the foreign shipping and air cargo companies and their agents were involved in tax evasion and money laundering.

The petitioner attached reports published in eight newspapers and online media as the basis of his claim.

The reports include one published in the Bangla daily Ittefaq under the caption ‘Bangladesh is 100 percent liberal in foreign investment’.

Quoting the Bangladesh Bank’s financial intelligence unit, the Ittefaq report said a section was siphoning off hundreds of millions of taka from Bangladesh after registering companies with nominal capital.

Lawyer Kamrul Haq took part in Tuesday’s hearing.