Business leaders at a dialogue with the interim government on Wednesday said wholesale hunting of the corrupt and the drives against black money-holders and tax dodgers by the Anti-Corruption Commission and the National Board of Revenue had spread panic among the business community.

‘Inviting and welcoming the emergency rule and consequently the present caretaker government, the business community now has become the worst victim… We are passing sleepless nights in fear of NBR and ACC drives,’ said Abu Motaleb, a director of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The government arranged the high-profile dialogue, addressed by the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, and the chief of army staff, General Moeen U Ahmed, as a part of its efforts to rebuild confidence among the businessmen who remain shaky about several fear factors.

At the dialogue on Bangladesh Economy and Future Perspective held at Hotel Radisson, the chief adviser and the army chief, however, assured the beleaguered business community that there would be no unnecessary harassment.

The finance adviser, Mirza Azizul Islam, presided over the dialogue, which was also attended by the communications adviser and the energy adviser. FBCCI director MA Rouf Chowdhury and former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association Annisul Huq presented two keynote papers.

The chief adviser, in his speech, regretted the fact that some of the government actions affected the businessmen’s confidence. This is not unexpected in a time of rapid and significant changes, when established ways of doing things are challenged, he argued.

Fakhruddin said the government’s efforts to improve governance and reduce corruption would ultimately help develop the country’s private sector. He said the government would put in place a mechanism to obtain systematic feedback from the private sector and other stakeholders on issues and problems confronting them, including those emanating from government policies and actions.

The army chief, in his deliberations, asked the business community not to be afraid of the ongoing drives to list the alleged corrupts and announced that the first phase of the listing process would end within a month.

General Moeen also placed an 11-point ‘cardinal formula’ to be studied and judged by the government immediately to intensify the country’s economic activities.

‘The ongoing mission of listing the alleged corrupts will be finished by this month. So far it has included some 152 alleged corrupts and the list, to be finished by the first of October, might reach possibly to 220,’ the general said.

After a number of the top businessmen had told the gathering that they were in anxiety regarding the ACC and NBR drives against illegal money owners and tax dodgers, the general assured that no honest businessman would be harassed and they should feel free if they were not engaged with corruption or creating problems.

‘I don’t have any knowledge of any medium entrepreneur being caught on corruption charges,’ argued Moeen, maintaining that no businessman of a high calibre could be corrupt.

He urged upon all partners, departments and organisations not to unnecessarily harass the businessmen and deny Bangladesh a chance of development. ‘Avoid harassing the business community by increasing better emolument to tax, anti-corruption and police departments.’

The interim administration, which Moeen termed a ‘reformist caretaker government,’ unlike the previous ones, has received an overwhelming mandate of the people, he claimed.

‘The caretaker government is taking some hard decisions… It cannot be politically popular but has a silent popular consent from every citizen of the country,’ he said.

President of the International Chamber of Commerce Mahbubur Rahman said the government should rethink whether the country’s economy had been benefited by following wholesale prescriptions of the lending agencies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

He said the government should not sign any policy instrument prepared by the IMF.

Rouf Chowdhury, in his keynote paper, listed several fear factors, including the ACC drives, anti-hoarding drives, VAT and tax drives, bank account searching drives, money source searching drives, and eviction of huts and bazaars on public land, which had spread fear among the businesses.

Too many questions on every activity and too many list of offenders also spread panic among the businessmen, he added.

In his paper, Annisul Huq said, ‘Businessmen are the backbone of the nation; if they pass their days in a sense of panic, the economy can’t perform well.’

‘We must bring back confidence among the businessmen to keep the economic activities on proper track and rein in the prices of essentials,’ he added.

The army chief in his speech also mentioned that ‘the unfortunate incident at Dhaka University on August 20th has left a mole in last half a year governance of the caretaker administration.’

‘Disputes and problems, whatever its variety, whether they are subtler act of few academician[s] or [a] naked form of street hostility of agitated innocent citizens are deplorable, and once more proved students are hostage to unconscious politics in the government universities and colleges both by their political masters and patrons,’ he maintained.

Stressing the need of an immediate paradigm shift in policies and strategies of the government on the medium- and long-term economic goals, Moeen placed his 11-point formula.

He prescribed that the government should develop ‘an interim development fund’ to speed up development projects.

‘Individuals, who deposited unaccounted money out of court settlement or “Plea Bargain”, should now invest on people[-]oriented projects to support and further help infrastructure and development[-]oriented projects that the government intends to undertake in [the] immediate future,’ he added.

The general suggested forming a body — Bangladesh Economic Development Committee — responsible to the finance adviser and the business community, to implement projects and meet fortnightly to oversee all activities of the economy.

Moeen suggested that the government should disinvest all of its shares in [the state-owned enterprises] and foreign companies, both listed and unlisted on the capital market.

‘Generate economic activity at grassroots level on various development projects within one month, failing, any governmental and departmental officer responsible will be answerable,’ Moeen warned, adding that such projects should include micro-credit, industrial development, youth employment, domestic investment, imports, agro-based industries, SMEs, and wholesale and retail trade.

Moeen recommended utilisation of non-governmental organisations to further consolidate the sustained growth in rural economy.

He stressed the need for exporting more skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manpower to balance the human development index and increase the remittance inflow.

He also proposed to facilitate investment by Bangladeshi expatriates by holding an international business conference of expatriates in November to ensure further injection of capital into the economy.

Abdul Matlub Ahmed, chairman of Nitol Group, said owners of at least 140 commercial high-rises in the capital were passing their days in panic after hearing the government plan of wholesale demolishing of unauthorised buildings.

‘We invested tens of hundreds of crores in the buildings taking approval of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha. The buildings house thousands of enterprises. But, now we are in a constant fear as government plans dismantling these buildings,’ he said.