ACC probes five officials, including NBR commissioner

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has launched an investigation against five officials, including a commissioner of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), over allegations of accepting bribes to facilitate tax evasion and harassing businesses through false cases when bribes were refused.

The probe was confirmed by ACC Deputy Director (Public Relations) Akhtarul Islam on Thursday (July 3).

Those under investigation include Kazi Mohammad Ziauddin, Commissioner of Customs, Excise and VAT (Dhaka East); Md. Kamruzzaman, Commissioner of Benapole Land Port; Md. Mamun Mia, Deputy Tax Commissioner; Sehela Siddika, Additional Tax Commissioner (Income Tax Intelligence Unit); and Lokman Ahmed, Tax Inspector of Tax Zone-2.

According to the ACC, these officials allegedly accepted large sums of money to allow tax evasion and manipulated tax and duty assessments in collusion with business entities. As a result, the government is reportedly being deprived of significant revenue annually.

The commission also received complaints that some of the accused officials filed false cases against businesspeople who refused to pay bribes.

This move follows a similar investigation launched just a day earlier against five other tax officials on comparable charges. They are: Additional Commissioner Abdul Rashid Mia, NBR Member Lutful Azim, former Additional Director General of the Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) Mohammad Alamgir Hossain, Deputy Tax Commissioner Mohammad Shihabul Islam, and Joint Commissioner Md. Tarek Hasan.

The ACC has stated that it is intensifying its efforts to root out corruption within the revenue collection system.