Law to punish currency counterfeiters soon

The government is going to enact a law keeping the provisions of fine, up to Tk 10 million, and life-term jail if one found guilty of producing and circulating counterfeit currency notes in the country, officials said.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) recently forwarded the draft of the law to the Finance Division under Ministry of Finance (MoF) for getting it vetted by the Ministry of Law (MoL), they added.

A six-member sub-committee comprising officials from MoL, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), National Security Intelligence (NSI) and BB prepared the draft.

The body was formed at a meeting of the Central Committee on Fake Currency Note Prevention held two years back.

In the absence of an act to deal with this criminal offence, the offenders are now punished under Section 25 (A) of Special Powers Act 1974 and Section 489 (A and D) of Penal Code 1860.

Special Powers Act has the provision of punishing the counterfeit note producers 'with death, or with 15 years [imprisonment for life], or with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to fourteen years, and shall also be liable to fine'.

Under Section 489 (A and D) of Penal Code one can be given ten years of jail-term and made liable to fine for counterfeiting currency notes or bank notes.

But the officials concerned found that in many cases people involved in offences of lesser degree were awarded tough punishments due to these provisions of the acts.

Even in many cases carriers of fake currency notes, despite being not guilty, or carrying only a few fake notes, were punished harshly.

"We have taken opinions from experts while preparing the draft act. The ministries of finance and law will further scrutinise it for finalisation," BB general manger Sultan Masud Ahmed told the FE on Wednesday.

"I believe the act, once passed and enforced, will help prevent production and distribution of fake currency notes," he said.

According to the draft, the minimum punishment for producing, possessing, trading or circulating counterfeit notes will be Tk 0.1 million or prison sentence for two years or both.

On the other hand, the maximum punishment for the offences under the act will be Tk 10 million fine or life-term jail or both.

Possessing counterfeit notes less or more than 500 pieces, and less than 100 pieces will be given different types of punishment.

Reports and photographs published in newspapers or video and audio files relating to production, possessing, carrying or involvement of people with counterfeit notes will be taken into judicial cognizance, according to the draft act.

In the recent days the incidence of circulating counterfeit notes has increased alarmingly. People, it is alleged, do receive counterfeit notes even from bank cash counters and ATM booths. Counterfeit notes are being widely circulated by an unscrupulous section of people, especially during the festivals.

On Wednesday, the Detective Branch (DB) of police said they have arrested a man, who has been involved in producing and circulating counterfeit notes during the last 30 years. He was wanted by police in six cases relating to such offence.

The man initially produced and circulated Bangladeshi currency, but he was recently producing Indian currency and smuggling those into that country, the DB police said.

While contacted over telephone on Wednesday, former BB deputy governor Khondker Ibrahim Khaled told the FE that enacting a law may not bring major success in preventing production and circulation of counterfeit currency notes unless detective works are done proactively.

"The main way to prevent fake currency is intensifying detective initiatives."

Mr Khaled said the Financial Intelligence Unit of BB needs to be developed further to prevent such offenses alongside the existing detective agencies working in the country.

The intelligence officials need to be given training abroad to achieve expertise on detecting such offences, he further said.

Referring to his interactions with police officials, Mr Khaled said counterfeit Indian notes are being produced in the country and smuggled out to procure money for terrorist activities.

Besides, counterfeit notes are being produced by unscrupulous people for personal gain, he noted.

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