Salman F Rahman earns mostly from stocks

The monthly income of Salman F Rahman, the Awami League candidate for Dhaka-1 parliamentary constituency, from his business is Tk 50,000 only, despite the fact that he is the boss of the Beximco Group, one of the leading conglomerates in Bangladesh.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 3 Dec 2018, 05:35 PM
Updated : 3 Dec 2018, 07:47 PM

As much as 94 percent of his over Tk 93 million annual income comes from shares, savings certificates, bank deposits and debentures, according to the affidavit he has submitted to the Election Commission. 

The assets of the group’s vice-chairman is worth around Tk 2.8 billion, more than 90 percent of which is movable in bonds, shares of listed and unlisted firms, and letters of credit.

He has given Tk 201.7 million credit free of interest to his relatives and different companies, which tops the list of his moveable assets after shares.

He himself has borrowed less than Tk 840 million though, according to media reports, the Beximco Group had Tk 70 billion loans in the government-owned Sonali Bank in March.

Salman, the chairman of IFIC Bank, has not named anyone as lender.

Based in Shanghai, the Hurun Report had ranked Salman 1685 among 2257 on its Hurun Global Rich List 2017, a ranking of the US dollar billionaires currently found in the world, also known as the 'Nine Zero Club'.

After several media outlets ran reports on his being the first Bangladeshi to feature on a global list of the super-rich, Salman had expressed “surprise” saying the amount, $1.3 billion, mentioned in the reports was “not the amount of my personal wealth”.

The Awami League chief’s Private Sector Development Adviser Salman is running for the seat consisting of Dohar and Nawabganj on the outskirts of the capital.

He has declared in the affidavit that he has Tk 21 million in cash and over Tk 28.67 million in banks.

The car he owns is worth Tk 3.4 million. He also has a little over Tk 1.5 million of precious metals like gold.

Salman neither owns a home nor does he have any furniture.

The pieces of infertile land he owns are worth Tk 20.3 million and the buildings on these are worth Tk 800,000.

He has shown over Tk 93 million income in the last financial year. It includes around Tk  45.7 million from bonus shares of Beximco and IFIC Bank.

He earned around Tk 42.6 million from other shares, savings certificates, bank deposits and debentures, which was the second top source of his income.

Besides these, he earned around Tk 4.2 million as honorarium, Tk 600,000 from business, and around Tk 400,000 from house or shop rents.

Salman had been accused in the Securities and Exchange Commission cases of taking away billions of takas from investors by artificially raising share prices during the 1996 stock market scam.

After a long stay following High Court orders, the court cleared Salman and his brother Sohel F Rahman of the scam two years ago.

According to Salman’s affidavit, his wife Syeda Rubaba Rahman owns assets worth over Tk 423.7 million.

The liabilities of Rubaba are over Tk 130.5 million, including Tk 126.125 million she had borrowed from Beximco Holdings and Tk 4.4 million from her husband.

Salman, a vice-chairman of the Beximco Group which started its journey just after independence, had headed the apex trade body FBCCI in mid-90s.

The group’s business ranges from pharmaceuticals, ceramic, clothing, energy, to ICT and media. A number of companies under the group are also listed on the capital market.

Salman fought for the Dhaka-1 seat, which consists of Dohar and Nababgabnj on the outskirts of the capital, in the 2001 election with the Awami League ticket, but lost to his relative and a then BNP leader Nazmul Huda.

Before joining the Awami League, Salman lost his deposit with the Election Commission by drawing only a handful of votes in 1996 as a candidate of the ‘Samriddha Bangladesh Andolan’ party he had founded. He contested for the Dhanmondi seat in Dhaka at the time.