The Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Court on Thursday imposed a travel ban on Waheeda Rahman Chowdhury, former commissioner of the National Board of Revenue, in connection with a case filed against her on charges of providing illegal benefits to four mobile phone operator companies, causing the government losses of about Tk 153 crore.
Judge Mohammed Ash-Shams Jaglul Hossain passed the order, allowing聽 a plea submitted by Anti-Corruption Commission assistant director Shah Alam Sheikh, also an investigation officer in the case.
ACC public prosecutor Mahmud Hossain Jahangir told the court that they had information that the accused was secretly trying to leave the country.
聽If she leaves, the probe into the case will be hampered, the prosecutor added.
Later, the ACC sent the order to Special Branch and the Department of Immigration and Passport for taking necessary actions in this regard.
Earlier on Tuesday, the ACC filed the case with its integrated district office in Dhaka-1 against Waheeda Rahman, who was posted at NBR鈥檚 large taxpayer unit of value added tax and is now enjoying post-retirement leave.
According to the case statement, Waheeda took illegal executive decisions involving 16 documents regarding VAT collection and waived Tk 152.89 crore of unpaid interest with dishonest intention between March 2020 and November 2022.
Grameenphone Limited was awarded a waiver of Tk 58.64 crore in its unpaid interest, Banglalink Digital Communication Limited Tk 57.88 crore, Robi Axiata Limited Tk 14.94 crore, and Airtel Bangladesh Limited Tk 20.53 crore.
The case also stated that the four mobile operators, at a meeting of alternative dispute resolution earlier, agreed to pay their Vat amount on their rents of places and establishments.
Accordingly, they cleared the payment of Tk 189.74 crore in VAT.
As they delayed in making the payment, the four companies incurred Tk 152.89 crore in interest, said the statement.
Waheeda, however, provided the waiver of the interest to the companies through 鈥榓buse of power and criminal breach of trust,鈥� it added.
