Dhaka, 8th November 2018. Today thirty-two civil society rights group facilitated by Equity and Justice Working Group Bangladesh (EquityBD) in cooperation with Tax and Financial Justice Asia (TAFJA) and Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJ) and as a part of global week of action, have organized a human chain rally in front of national press club Dhaka, where they have demanded party election manifesto with measures to contain illicit flow or capital flight, bank money embezzlement and black money. They urged to stop culture of political patronage to create “Robber Baron” in the country, and they have also urged to make the loan information of MP (Member of Parliament) public in forthcoming election. The rally was moderated by Mostafa Kamal Akanda of EquityBD, other speakers of the rally were, Md Shariful Islam Bangladesh Foundation, Mahbub Khokan Jatiya Unnayan Parishad, Feroza Begum Bachete Sheko Nari, Qader Hazari Aorpon, Sayed Aminul Haque, Ahsanul Karim and Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of EquityBD.
Apart from these key demand the group has placed six demands in this regard, (i) To control banking and financial sector central bank should be independent and there should be banking reform commission, (ii) loan defaulters and those who reschedule the loan again and again, they should not be given MP nomination, (iii) Bangladeshi’s whose name came in panama and paradise papers should not be given MP nomination, (iv) There should be white paper on Bangladesh Bank reserve money hacking, share market scam, responsible person should be given punishment, (v) To stop illicit money transfer there should be a cell to compare international price market, and (vi) To eliminate corruption, national integrity strategy should be implemented in all level.
Ahsanul Karim of EquityBD said that during 1870 to 1914 in the history of United State of America’s capitalist growth there was state or political patronage to elite and rich people to accumulate wealth in primitive way, who has been named as Robber Baron in the history. Same culture is happening in our country for last 47 years, but the difference is that those US Robber Barrons have had invested those money in their own country, but in our country such Robber Baron transfer their capital in developed country like Siungapore, Malaysia, Canada and other different tax heavens. According to the GFI (Global Financial Integrity) report 2017 it is more then 9.11 billion dollars, on which we could have two Padma bridge. Sayed Aminul Haque of EquityBD said that, these Robber Barons now is being occupying our politics. But the parliaments should be filled with honest people who are not greedy and no track record of primitive accumulation.
Rezaul Karim Chowdhury of EquityBD and COAST said the country should not be like Zimbawe, Hondurus and Venezuela, that because of mismanagement of financial sector, our families will abandon their children will started mass migration. It is the poor migrant of the country send dollars while rich do illicit transfer of those. In fact there are little of private investment in last five years. He urged Prime Minister and political leaders to take action to contain illicit flow and to create confidence of the private investor and people.
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