An investigation by the Central Intelligence Cell (CIC) of the National Board of Revenue found that two subsidiaries of Summit Group, the most talked-about power sector stakeholder during the Awami League regime, stole Tk 11.12 billion from the government by not taking source tax out of dividend payments.
In order to evade taxes, dividend payments to Summit Corporation Limited, the company that owns shares in Summit Power Limited, and Summit Power International, a Singaporean company that owns shares in Summit Corporation Limited, were not subject to 20 percent and 15 percent source taxes, respectively.
Dhaka Taxes Zone 2 Commissioner Mutasim Billah Faruqui responded, “We will go to the collection now per the NBR chairman’s instructions,” when asked how the tax would be collected or what the NBR would do next. We will utilize the collection techniques.
Summit Power International’s media wing released a statement stating that “Summit has never evaded any tax” and that “We have not yet received any information from NBR or any tax authorities.” Summit never avoided paying taxes.
“We will take all necessary action in accordance with Bangladeshi law upon receiving any correspondence from the NBR or tax authorities. We have always followed the law and will continue to do so.
After the interim government took power, the CIC conducted an investigation against a number of well-known business conglomerates and found the information while only looking into one aspect of the group.
According to a representative of the NBR’s intelligence unit, the incident was “the country’s biggest TDS—source tax—deduction scam’ so far.”
After more than a month and a half of analyzing data on Summit Power’s dividend declarations, shareholdings, and declarations, the agency made its decision.
On August 20, the CIC opened an investigation against the owners of the well-known business conglomerates Orion, Summit, Beximco, Bashundhara, and Nassa groups.
Banks and financial institutions have received letters asking for the transaction details of the following individuals: Obaidul Karim, chairman of the Orion Group; Muhammad Aziz Khan, chairman of the Summit Group; Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, chairman of the Bashundhara Group; Nazrul Islam Mazumdar, chairman of the Nassa Group; and Salman F. Rahman, vice-chairman of the Beximco Group.
On the suspicion that there was less tax evasion in the names of individuals, the intelligence agency subsequently opened investigations against these businesses as well.
At that time, we assigned an investigating officer to each company, thereby increasing the number of intelligence personnel. This is the investigation’s largest discovery to date.
However, given that the investigation is ongoing, a number of intelligence officials expressed concern about learning more about corruption against each company and its owners.
