Culprits inside BB are buttressing market syndicates

 
Allegations have glared up that a vested quarter inside the central bank are according all out support to certain immoral syndicates who are responsible for raising the prices of daily essential commodities abnormally. The same syndicates are reportedly contriving artificial crisis of different necessary goods including foodstuff which are required in people's everyday life across Bangladesh.

Market syndicates which were active and influential during the ousted ruling party Awami League's regime are still very much in a chubby shape and they have been working stealthily with robust backup from a flock of officials inside Bangladesh Bank (BB). It was categorically seen after 5 August 2024 that the top office bearers of the Bangladesh Bank employees' association polls who won leading posts are all Awami League loyalists. Reports have surfaced that this vicious group of mid level BB officials are generating obstructions one after another on the way to the implementation of BB Governor Dr. Ahsan H Mansur's instructions.

Under these circumstances the Governor in one way or another has become helpless to the nexus between syndicators and the above group of BB employees. Thus a palatial plot is going on to jeopardize the country's banking system as well as to plunge ordinary masses into endless sufferings under the jackboot of unnaturally high prices of all products throughout Bangladesh. Reliable sources have informed that the ulterior motive of this unholy collaboration between corrupt BB employees and market syndicates is to put the interim government in dire trouble ahead of the holy month of Ramadan which is going to start from March 2025.

Even though overthrown Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's fascist ruling period was eliminated on 5 August 2024 through the Anti-Discriminatory Students' Movement, anarchy, ambiguity and mismanagement inside Bangladesh Bank are still going on because Governor Dr. Ahsan H Mansur is not being allowed to exercise his power and authority. Bangladesh Bank is still besieged inside the clutches of branded large business conglomerates who rampaged and paralyzed banks and financial institutions from 2009 to 2024. At the same time new companies and fresher business enterprises are being subjected to different critical impediments when they want to go about the formalities of importing daily necessary goods or open letters of credit (LCs).

The July Revolution was led by Bangladesh's students who all belong to the country's young generation but the business ball is still in the court of notorious monopolists who financially backed up Sheikh Hasina and her cohorts in power for long 15 years. Beximco, Summit Group, S. Alam and Nassa Group hit news headlines for their brazen financial rackets, full-scale money laundering and monstrous loan scams frequently even while Sheikh Hasina was in power. People became very much hopeful when Sheikh Hasina was unseated from power but the situation in the country's financial and banking administrations is still very much gloomy.

The Asian Age has obtained a few documents connected with the above descriptions. AB Bank PLC applied to BB Deputy Governor Zakir Hossain Chowdhury on 13 January 2025 seeking cooperation and suggestions from the central bank to enable Infinite Horizon Corporation to establish an overseas letter of credit. Bangladesh Bank allowed authorized traders to import essential goods on deferred payment basis a few months ago but another order from Bangladesh Bank issued a totally opposite circular on 1 January 2025 which makes foreign trade all the more complicated for transparent and new companies while it simplifies the unethical gambits easier for syndicators and monopolists. The reference number of the application from Syed Mizanur Rahman, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO-Acting) of AB Bank PLC is AB/HO/CRM/003/2025 dated 13 January 2025.

AB Bank PLC also cited Bangladesh Bank's letter bearing Reference Number DOS (D-2)/BSS-4/AB/2025-36. Bangladesh Bank, as stated in AB Bank's letter, issued no objection to import Ramadan goods. The circulars from Bangladesh Bank's Banking Regulation and Policy Department (BRPD) bear Reference Numbers 41/2024 and 47/2024. Nevertheless, Bangladesh Bank declined AB Bank's request about Infinity Horizon Corporation through a letter dated 26 January 2025 signed by BB Joint Director Birendra Chandra Dash showing Reference Number: DOS (D-2)/BSS-4/1161/AB/2025-598.

The above details are reflection of a grim and fearsome plight that still grips the central bank. The perception that dawned in the minds of naïve people across Bangladesh that the country has been released from fascism is about to fall apart.

The interim government led by Nobel Prize winner Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus has assigned young Advisers for a few vital ministries. A lot of countries around the world have picked up young leadership because youths are emboldened with innovative skills, patriotic spirit and the power to overcome stereotyped, age-old and daunting socio-economic and political trends. However, in Bangladesh even the current non-political government is fumbling with important tasks of eradicating injustice and lack of good governance in financial arena and banking sector.

Editor of Dainik Amar Desh Mahmudur Rahman has already expressed dismay over the inability of the interim government to restore rule of law, justice and equity in state machineries including banks. If the interim government cannot succeed in its pursuit to dismantle corrupt syndicators and agents left behind by the terminated fascist rulers, a bleak and precarious future is waiting for the members of the Advisory Council. Bangladesh Bank must rise over all sorts of fears or favours and act independently. The ministries concerned are under moral obligations to empower Bangladesh Bank top brass to work for the greater welfare of the nation and to fight all evil entities without delay.