NBR member Belal Hossain made OSD two days after ACC lawsuit

He is accused of acquiring nearly Tk 50 million in illicit assets and hiding information related to these assets in his wealth statement

Mohammad Belal Hossain Chowdhury, a member of the National Board of Revenue, has been made an officer on special duty two days after the Anti-Corruption Commission brought charges of accumulating illegal assets and concealing information against him.

On Thursday, the Internal Revenue Division (IRD) issued a notification transferring Belal to the OSD post within NBR.

OSDs are usually political victims, having no work to do either in the policymaking or the implementation process of the government.

Belal is accused of acquiring nearly Tk 50 million in illicit assets and hiding information related to these assets in his wealth statement.

On Tuesday, the national graft agency's Deputy Director Saiduzzaman lodged the case at the District Office Dhaka-1, based on the allegations.

According to case documents, Belal “concealed information” about assets valued at Tk 46.01 million.

While serving as a government official, he allegedly acquired these assets through corruption and provided “false and misleading information".

The documents added that Belal accumulated a total of Tk 49.75 million in movable and immovable assets from 2004 to 2022, all deemed illicit.

This conduct constitutes a punishable offence under Sections 26(2) and 27(1) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2004, and Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947.

On Wednesday, Belal was removed from his post as NBR member (Customs Implementation & IT) and reassigned to the president of the Customs, Excise, and VAT Appellate Tribunal.