The government has given the go-ahead to a draft law that will empower its agencies to seek information from foreign nationals staying in Bangladesh about foreign exchange they possess and their assets abroad.
Published : 12 Jan 2015, 09:16 PM
A Cabinet meeting held on Monday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair approved the draft of ‘Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (Amendment), 2015.
After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said: “There was no ambiguity in the application of the law to Bangladeshi nationals. But there is ambiguity about whether the law is applicable to foreign nationals staying in Bangladesh.”
The draft now says the law will be applicable to Bangladeshis as well as to foreign nationals staying in Bangladesh, he added.
The draft stipulates that the government or central bank can seek information from any Bangladeshi or foreign national staying here about the foreign exchange or securities they possess and their assets abroad.
“Bangladesh Bank’s authority to ask for information has been expanded through this,” Bhuiyan said.
The amendment has ‘updated’ the definitions of the words and phrases ‘currency’, ‘exchange’, ‘account’, ‘transaction’, ‘services’, ‘capital account transactions’ and ‘goods’.
The secretary said the draft law empowered the central bank to ‘impose administrative fine’ on violators.
“Approval has been given to several conditions applicable for those who are authorised foreign exchange dealers. If they violate any provision or don’t follow any instruction of Bangladesh Bank or the government, they can be fined,” he added.