Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday said the media would soon be informed about measures the government has taken against culprits who laundered money abroad in the past two to three years.
The government is taking legal steps and the culprits are being punished through legal procedures, he told a virtual press briefing following a meeting of the cabinet committee on government purchase.
Kamal said they got some names of persons who laundered money abroad through reports published in news media. “I believe that Bangladesh Bank and other related agencies are working on it,” he said.
The finance minister on November 27 told parliament that he does not know who was laundering money abroad and called upon opposition lawmakers to provide him a list of money launderers.
During yesterday’s press briefing, in reply to a question about whether the minister has any mechanism to find out the culprits who are laundering money abroad, the minister said, “I don’t have any own mechanism. We rather have law and legal procedures.”
If anybody is found involved in corruption or laundering money, cases are filed, culprits are arrested and sent to jail, he said.
In reply to a query about whether the ministry has any plan in the wake of a possible spread of new coronavirus variant named Omicron, the minister said it was yet to be known how dangerous the new variant was.
Mentioning that they earlier took every measure to face the previous waves of Cobid-19, he said the government was well prepared this time too.
When asked about whether the government was considering reducing the fuel price taking into context the downward trend in the global market, the minister said the market was still at a flexible stage.
Mentioning that fuel prices in the global market sometimes come down by $20, and again increase by $2, he hoped that steps would be taken when a stable condition prevailed in the international market.
(TDS)