3 years jail for giving false information in bank transactions
The cabinet on Monday gave the final approval to the draft of the "Payment and Settlement Systems Act 2021", keeping a provision of three years in jail if anyone gives false information on bank transactions.
The person who will violate the law will have to serve the jail term and be fined Tk50 lakh or both.
The approval came from a weekly cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, joining it from her official Ganabhaban residence in the capital.
The new law aims to ban services by such errant payment gateways that witnessed huge money flows after escrow, a third-party payment gateway service, had been made compulsory in e-commerce shopping.
As per the draft law, any anomalies committed by payment gateways will be deemed as non-bailable criminal offences. If allegations are proved, the people responsible will have to pay at least Tk50 lakh in fines and suffer five years in jail.
According to the draft law, the Bangladesh Bank will be able to take action against all payment gateways operating in the country for violating the law.
Continuation of payment services without having a licence or even after its licence is revoked will be considered an offence, it adds.
The law also states that a defaulter cannot be a director of such institutions. And, the directors will not be allowed to transfer their shares without the prior approval of the Bangladesh Bank.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials will be able to inspect any office of all institutions involved in the payment system and will take disciplinary action if any irregularities are found.
The central bank can take one or more actions against a payment gateway and its director, chief executive, and other officials concerned for violating any provision of the act.
The meeting also cleared the draft Trade Organisations Act 2021, which would replace the Trade Organisations Ordinance 1961.
The draft of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh Act, 2021 in order to repeal the military regime ordinance over the icddr,b in line with a verdict of the higher court.
The Cabinet also endorsed the list of duty-free goods and certificate of origin for other member countries under the D-8 Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).
In addition, the draft amendment to the ratified agreement to be signed between Bangladesh and the Maldives for the avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax evasion was also approved.
