President revokes penalties against 20 NBR officials

The sentences of 20 officials who participated in the National Board of Revenue (NBR) movement during the interim government have been revoked. 

When they applied for mercy, the President granted it and ordered the cancellation of the sentences. 

In the meantime, the Internal Resources Division (IRD) has issued a notification to revoke the sentences. 

The IRD issued separate orders on Sunday revoking the punishment of these officials at different levels.

Several NBR officials said that the remaining four officials who were facing punishment at that time are also going to be commuted. At the revenue conference on August 18, NBR officials requested Prime Minister Tarique Rahman to lift the punishment taken against them. 

At the same time, when they still raised the fear of disruption in revenue collection due to fear of various types of punishment, the head of government asked them to forget the past and move forward. There, the assurance of commutation of the sentences was given. 

The IRD order said that the punishment of NBR officials will be revoked based on the application to the President. 

The punishment against these officials was two or more steps of reduction in basic salary for various charges, including “playing the role of organiser” in the movement.

The officials whose punishments were revoked include NBR Second Secretary (Deputy Commissioner) Md Shahadat Jamil, Revenue Officer of Customs, Excise and VAT Commissionerate Shafiul Bashar, Revenue Officer of Dhaka North Commissionerate Sabuj Mia and Deputy Commissioner of Customs Valuation and Internal Audit Commissionerate Khulna Mohammad Saidul Islam. 

In addition, Customs Bond Commissionerate, Chittagong Commissioner (Current Charge) Md Zakir Hossain, Joint Commissioner of the same Commissionerate Md Sanowarul Kabir, Additional Commissioner of Customs, Excise and VAT Commissionerate Gazipur Sadhan Kumar Kundu, Additional Commissioner of Chittagong Customs House A.A.M. Amimul Ihsan Khan and Additional Commissioner of Dhaka West Sifat-e-Maryam have had their sentences cancelled and released from liability.

The list also includes Hasan Muhammad Tarek Rikabdar, Additional Commissioner of the Directorate of Audit, Intelligence and Investigation, Value Added Tax, Dhaka. 

The tax officials who have been relieved of their duties include Monalisa Shahreen Sushmita, Joint Tax Commissioner of Tax Region-Mymensingh, Md Mamun Mia, Joint Tax Commissioner of Tax Region-Jashore, Chand Sultana Chowdhurani, Additional Tax Commissioner (Current Duty) of Tax Region-Gazipur, Sultana Habib, Additional Tax Commissioner of Tax Region-22, Dhaka, Murad Ahmed, Additional Tax Commissioner of Tax Region-Jashore, Joint Tax Commissioner Mohammad Morshed Uddin Khan and Masuma Khatun, Joint Tax Commissioner of Dhaka, E-Tax Management Unit.

In addition, Khulna Deputy Tax Commissioner Md Zillur Rahman, Deputy Tax Commissioner of Tax Zone-21, Dhaka Imam Touhid Hasan Shakil and Additional Tax Commissioner of Tax Zone-Dinajpur Mirza Ashiq Rana have been dismissed and released from the liability of the departmental case.

The interim government issued an ordinance in 2025 dividing the NBR into two separate departments, namely Revenue Management and Revenue Policy. 

NBR officials and employees launched a movement with various programmes, including pen breaks, demanding the cancellation of that ordinance. 

The government backed down in the face of their movement. On May 22 of that year, a press release from the Ministry of Finance said that “necessary amendments” would be made to the ordinance. 

Until the amendments were made, all the work of the NBR would continue in the existing structure. 

Meanwhile, the employees of the organisation raised various complaints and launched a new movement demanding the resignation of the then NBR Chairman Abdur Rahman Khan and declared him “undesirable” in the organisation’s office. 

NBR workers launched a “complete shutdown” programme on June 28 to demand their demands. 

Their protest brought NBR activities, including import and export, to a standstill. 

If the protest continued the next day, the interim government decided to declare the organisation’s services “essential”.

On that day, NBR workers were also called upon to return to work immediately and refrain from activities that were against the law and against national interests to resolve the crisis. 

Later, the then government announced the formation of an advisory committee with five advisers to resolve the crisis. 

However, with the mediation of business leaders, the NBR Reform Unity Council, the platform of the protesters, lifted the shutdown programme. 

Then, the ACC named the frontline leaders of the movement as “investigating corruption”. 

The organisation reported that it had started investigating 16 people in three phases.

Later, before the formation of the BNP government, punitive decisions began to be taken against officials one after another. Among them, many officials were given compulsory retirement while others got small scale of punishment.