NBR seeks C&F agents’ details by 15 Nov to prevent money laundering

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) on Wednesday instructed all the Clearing and Forwarding Agents (C & F Agents) to send their details to the customs authorities to prevent money laundering through import-export under false declaration.

The NBR sent instructions to the association of C&F agents and the agencies related to the imports and exports to provide the information by 15 November, NBR officials confirmed it to UNB on Wednesday.

According to the NBR, after collecting the information these agents will be entered in NBR's ASYCUDA WORLD System. Following this initiative, customs authorities can easily identify a C&F agent of an importer. As a result, imports and exports will be stopped by fake bills of entry or bills of export.

According to the directive, a C&F agent cannot undertake any activity related to commercial imports unless his information is in the database of the software.

Officials concerned said that recently the involvement of several C&F agents in smuggling huge money in the guise of exports came to the attention of the government. The new initiative of the NBR is taken to prevent false declarations of imports and exports.

According to the data of the customs department of the NBR, there are 8,422 importers listed under the bond facility in the country. The total number of importers and exporters is over 20,000. There are also around 10, 000 registered C&F agents in the country.