The government has decided to slap a ban on import of betel nut in a bid to tackle money laundering, said Bangladesh Bank officials.
The central bank on Thursday issued a circular to authorised dealer branches of all banks asking them not to open any letters of credit regarding import of betel nut.The commerce ministry issued a separate circular on May 12 saying that the government had banned the betel nut import on temporary basis under the Import and Export Act-1950.
A BB official told New Age on Monday that some traders had transferred huge amount of money illegally outside the country in the name of betel nut import.
The parliamentary standing committee on commerce ministry earlier detected the money laundering through export-import process of betel nut, he said.
In October 2012, the parliamentary committee unearthed that the betel nuts were being imported at prices higher than the export rates, he said.
According to the committee report, a group of traders is involved in importing betel nuts and exporting the product again at a lower price than the import costs, he said.
In 2011-12 fiscal year, betel nuts were imported at Tk 64,228 per tonne, but the export rate of the same product was Tk 54,640 per tonne.
The manipulation
indicated that the import price of a tonne of betel nut was Tk 7,588 higher than export rate of the same product.
-With New Age input
