The Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday asked authorised dealer banks not to open letters of credit for importing narcotics without prior permission from the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC). The BB issued a circular in this regard on the day.
The DNC wrote to the ministry of home affairs to stop such LC opening last month. The ministry forwarded the instructions to the financial institutions division (FID) of the finance ministry to take necessary action.
The finance ministry in a letter on 26 September asked the central bank not to allow banks to open LCs for importing narcotics without permission from the department. According to the letter, there is no scope for importing, preserving, storing, supplying, marketing, buying, selling, producing and processing, transporting and transferring of liquor items without having a licence of the narcotics department.
However, a group of unscrupulous businesspeople are importing those illicit drugs without permission from the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC). The drugs are being imported through opening letter of credit (LC) despite the businesses having no licences from the DNC.
The letter pointed out that the first schedule of the Narcotics Control Act 2018 (amended in 2020) has the mention of A, B, and C-class drugs. Import of these drugs without permission from the DNC is prohibited under sections 9, 10, 11 of the Act, it noted.
