Order takes 21 months to travel 1 km to Motijheel from Secretariat

A government circular on income tax took 21 months to reach the central bank and four state-run banks at Dhaka’s Motijheel from the Secretariat, which is only a kilometre away from the administrative hub.

Shaikh Abdullahbdnews24.com
Published : 11 March 2015, 07:09 PM
Updated : 11 March 2015, 07:09 PM

In the circular, the government asked bank officials to pay their income tax on their own from 2011-12 fiscal year.
 
But the delayed delivery caused the government Tk 4.3 million in losses as the banks already paid income tax for their executives as per the previous arrangement.
 
Bangladesh Bank’s human resources department has recently written a letter to the secretary to the Bank and Financial Institutions Division informing him of the delay.
 
The letter said: “Though the circular on the amendment to the Article 23 of the National Pay Scale, 2009 (Banks and Investment Organisations) was issued on May 27, 2012, it reached us on Feb 26, 2014.”
 
It said income tax of the executives had been paid as per the previous arrangement since the circular ‘did not reach the banks’ in time.
 
Though state-owned commercial banks have been turned public limited companies, government still holds 100 percent shares of Sonali, Janata and Agrani banks and has 90.19 percent stake in Rupali Bank.
 
Finance ministry officials think drainage of fund from state-owned banks means waste of government money.