DHAKA, Feb 7: More than 600 Bangladeshis, including bankers, businessmen, former bureaucrats and housewives, whitened Tk3170m between July and December 2005, according to the accumulated figures of the National Board of Revenue.

They paid in about Tk240m to the public exchequer to whiten the black money in their possession, said sources in the board.

The current regulations stipulate that tax officials will not raise any question about the source of income if a 7.5 per cent tax is paid against untaxed or black money.

The money whitening facility was incorporated in the Finance Bill 2005 despite opposition from economists, media and chamber leaders who termed the tax law proposal in the budget for 2005-06 ‘immoral’.

The finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, had also appeared in favour of not renewing the facility after its expiry at the end of 2004-05, insisting at a number of pre-budget discussions that the facility would be discontinued.

However, he eventually changed his mind, supposedly under pressure from influential quarters within the government.

More than 80 per cent of the Tk3170m was legalized from Dhaka and the rest from Chittagong, Narayanganj, Rangpur and Sylhet districts, said the sources.

A large number of women, who are actually employees of the republic in the police or customs department or different ministries and have accumulated a huge amount of money from bribe, identify themselves as housewives in the tax return in ‘fear of the Anti-Corruption Commission’, said a tax official.

Only a small section of the black money holders are employees of different private and nationalized banks, said the sources.

Another group of people, who concealed their actual income although the source of earning was not questionable, is also included in the list.