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The National Board of Revenue has suspended five more senior officers for allegedly playing an “organisational role” in protests against the ordinance that split the agency into two divisions.
With this move, a total of nine officers have been suspended through separate orders issued by the Internal Resources Division on Monday.
The five officers suspended in the latest phase include two additional tax commissioners, two joint tax commissioners and one director of the Central Intelligence Cell.
They have also been made officers on special duty (OSD) at the NBR.
The suspended tax cadre officers are: Additional Tax Commissioner Sehela Siddiqa, Additional Tax Commissioner Sultana Habib, Joint Tax Commissioner Mesbah Uddin Khan, Joint Tax Commissioner Mamun Mia, and CIC Director Chand Sultana Chowdhurani.
Earlier, four officers from the customs cadre were suspended: additional commissioners AAM Amimul Ehsan Khan and Sadhan Kumar Kundu, joint commissioner Md Sanowarul Kabir, and deputy commissioner Mohammad Saidul Islam.
According to the orders, the officers acted as organisers during protests against the ordinance creating two separate NBR wings -- Revenue Management and Revenue Policy.
They allegedly obstructed colleagues from official duties, forced staff to join protests at the NBR headquarters, and disrupted import-export operations. Disciplinary action has been launched against them.
The government had issued the ordinance in May, but following staff resistance and work stoppages, the finance ministry announced on May 22 that amendments would be made and existing structures would remain in place until then.
Despite the concession, protests escalated.
On Jun 28, NBR staff declared a “complete shutdown”, halting revenue operations nationwide.
The interim government then declared NBR services “essential” and urged staff to resume work immediately.
A five-member advisory committee was formed to resolve the crisis, while business leaders mediated. The strike was withdrawn, but the Anti-Corruption Commission soon began inquiries into 16 protest leaders for alleged corruption.
Since then, the NBR has steadily moved against agitators, including forcing senior officers into retirement and suspending protest organisers one by one.