Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed -File Photo

DHAKA, May 28, 2025 (BSS) – Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed has said the government has remained very active in bringing back the laundered money from abroad although it would take time to recover such a huge amount siphoned off from the country for a long period of time. 

“The concerned taskforce is very active in this regard. But, money had been laundered abroad for a long period of time,” he said.

The finance adviser told BSS during an interview at his office at Bangladesh Secretariat while highlighting the salient features of the upcoming national budget, which would also be the first of its kind for the interim government, headed by Nobel laureate Chief Adviser Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus.

When asked whether there is any progress over bringing back the laundered money from abroad, Dr Salehuddin Ahmed said that firstly, the authorities concerned are tracing out who have laundered money abroad to which destinations. The taskforce has already identified these, he added.

He said that money has also flown to some tax heavens in the world while some sensitive cases have already been identified as well as steps have been taken accordingly.

The adviser said this is testament to the government’s efforts while the personal accounts of many of the alleged launderers have been frozen instead of their business accounts. “They (money launderers) have received a message that they won’t be able to go far through such misdeeds,” he said. 

He said that a big process is involved in recovering laundered assets while it is also not such easy as the money launderers are not fools. “Hopefully, we’ll get the amount back … the next government should pursue in this regard,” he said. 

Besides, Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Ahsan H Mansur recently said that the attached and frozen assets of the oligarchs who “plundered people’s money” during the deposed regime of Sheikh Hasina will go into two separate sovereign funds the interim government has decided to form.

Two separate funds will be created. One will be with the attached assets of those who plundered banks and another fund will be created with the assets plundered from non-banking sources.

Currently, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), the central bank and other government organisations are working to bring back laundered money by forming an inter-agency taskforce.

The BB governor said that Bangladesh did not have experience in bringing back laundered money. 

"Inter-ministerial initiative is now being taken and the government will amend necessary rules and regulations. The power of the taskforce will be increased," he added.

Responding to a question on whether there would be any provision for whitening the black money in the next budget, he said that there would be no such direct provision. 

But, there may be some areas where black money usually generates like high priced flats being registered with low cost.

He said the government is trying to make the registration cost closer to the original value so that the money becomes white. “We may also consider reducing the registration cost keeping intact the flow of revenue collection,” he added. 

Primarily it will be exercised in the urban sector, the Finance Adviser said, adding that a committee, headed by the land secretary, is working to this end on mouza valuation. Re-fixing the mouza valuation of the entire country is not an easy task, he added.

If it becomes impossible to reflect this issue in the next budget, then the interim government could give a policy to be pursued by the next government.

Asked about the successes of the government in reducing anarchy in the banking sector, he said that after taking charge, the interim government provided support to those banks which lack funding and are suffering from liquidity problem.

“The main thing is that the depositors of the troubled banks will get back their amounts though it may take some time,” he added.

However, Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, also a former central bank Governor, said that it is difficult to support some banks which are suffering from acute liquidity crisis as their fund was earlier siphoned off abroad. “We’re trying to fix those. It’s not possible to support those through printing money, rather sufficient fund is needed,” he said.