Income of state minister for water resources increased 37 times in five years

State Minister for Water Resources Zaheed Farooque's income has increased thirty-sevenfold over the past five years, according to the affidavit he submitted ahead of the Jan 7 polls for the Barishal-5 parliamentary seat.

His wife earned a total of Tk 2.31 million in the same period.

In the 11th parliamentary polls, Zaheed did not mention any assets owned by his wife in the documents he submitted along his nomination papers.

According to the latest documents, his wife has Tk 9.21 million in cash and bank deposits of Tk 5.6 million, fixed deposit investments of Tk 7 million and personal investments of Tk 450,000, in addition to Tk 50,000 in gold.

He showed yearly income of Tk 451,802 in 2018. This year, it rose to Tk 16.76 million.

Zaheed did not mention any deposits in banks or financial institutions in the last election. This time he has shown Tk 10.9 million in bank deposits.

He did not bring up any shares in companies in the last election, but now he owns company shares worth Tk 1.12 million.

Zaheed mentioned owning a Toyota Allion car, worth Tk 2.68 million, in both elections.

The 2018 affidavit said he had agricultural land worth Tk 175,000. This time around, he gave accounts of assets worth Tk 10.11 million in Barishal’s Banglabazar and Dhaka’s Baridhara.

In 2018, the retired army colonel chose his profession as businessman but in the latest affidavit he mentioned that he is a retired public servant.