Four expats declared CIPs
The selected CIPs will gain access to the Secretariat, and be able to hold meetings with high-ranking officials and get invites to events hosted by Bangladesh Mission at home and abroad
Four expatriate Bangladeshis have been declared as Commercially Important Persons (CIP) by the government.
The decision was made in light of the four having invested in Wage-Earners Development Bonds and and US Dollar Investment Bonds, and was made public through a notice from the Internal Resource Division (IRD) of the finance ministry signed by Deputy Secretary Dr Md Hamidul Haque on Tuesday 27 February.
Of the four, the three who have invested in Wage-Earners Development Bond are Japan resident Kazi Sarwar Habib, Kuwait resident Selina Islam and United Arab Emirates resident Monir Hossain.
The expatriate investing in US Dollar Investment Bonds is Monirul Islam, a resident of Saudi Arabia.
Having fulfilled the requirements of Section 14 subsection 4 of the Wage-Earners Development Bond Rules of 1981 (amended 2011) and Section 14 subsection 4 of the US Dollar Investment Bond Rules of 2002, the four were declared CIPs.
On 20 February, IRD Senior Secretary and National Board of Revenue Chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiya presided over the process of selecting these CIPs and determining the privileges and perks they will get.
The selected CIPs will gain access to the Secretariat, and be able to hold meetings with high-ranking officials and get invites to events hosted by Bangladesh Mission at home and abroad. Moreover, they will also be getting special reserved seats on air, rail, road, and water transport along with free healthcare at government hospitals for themselves and their families. Additionally, they will also have access to VIP Lounge-2 at the airport along with special handling.
In order to encourage expatriate Bangladeshis to invest in Bangladesh, the constitution holds provisions to make people who invest in either Wage-Earners Premium and US Dollar Investment Bonds Commercially Important Persons.
Normally, if an expatriate invests $300,000 or more in the country, brings in $200,000 into the country as remittance or imports more than $300,000 worth of Bangladeshi products into their country, they earn the ability to apply to become CIPs.
