Massive theft in banking sector, admits minister

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday admitted in Parliament that there were some irregularities in the banking sector and it was massive at times, reports the UNB.

 

He made the statement while responding to a remark of independent MP Rustam Ali Farazi during the cut-motion discussion on the supplementary budget of the outgoing fiscal year.

 

"There were some faults, sometimes there were looting," Muhith said echoing Mr Farazi. "I want to say the irregularities were massive at times," the finance minister told the House. 

 

Muhith sought an additional amount of Tk 238.02 crore for Bank and Financial Institution Division in the supplementary budget.

 

Opposing this allocation, independent MP Farazi said the incidents of theft are taking place in the banking sector. "The situation in all banks are the same by and large. An amount of Tk 800 crore has been taken away from bank (Bangladesh Bank) through an unholy alliance of its officials. These bank officials are involved in all the incidents of theft," he said.

 

He said a sum Tk 275,000 crore has been siphoned off, while Tk 30,000 swindled out. "These are not only thefts, but also colossal thefts," he said.

 

Talking about the GDP projection, the Finance Minister said it can be changed anytime.

 

He mentioned about the capability of the BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) and said its nine months' calculation of statistics projected that this time the GDP will be 7.05 percent.

 

"What we've given [said] will be proved correct after three months, we have our own research...the BBS is very much skilled and international organisations are working on BBS data."