It has also found that the managing director (MD) of the PSI firm, BSI Inspectorate Ltd, has evaded payment of another Tk 10 crore in income taxes since 1999.

The NBR has served the firm and the MD with legal notices.

According to an NBR report filed last week to the parliamentary standing committee on estimate, the BSI will now have to pay fine five times the amount evaded, which is around Tk 386 crore.

Its Managing Director Sardar Sharfuddin Ahmed will also have to pay around Tk 55 crore along with the fine.

The NBR says the BSI had received Tk 174 crore from customs houses in PSI fees in 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04 financial years. But in its return sheet submitted to the NBR, it showed the same at only Tk 2.38 crore in three years.

BSI Inspectorate Ltd, previously known as Inspectorate Griffith Ltd, is operating here through its local agent Inspectorate Bangladesh Ltd.

Ahmed, the MD who evaded Tk 10 crore in income taxes, had four accounts with the Standard Chartered Bank, IFIC Bank (Barisal Branch), IFIC Bank (Shantinagar Branch), and the HSBC between 1999-2000 and 2004-05. The Central Intelligence Cell of the NBR found that Ahmed did not show the savings, bank balance and the incomes in his income tax return.

Ahmed also did not cite his real salary, which is very high, in his tax returns.

The NBR investigation found that Ahmed deposited Tk 114 crore in the four accounts from 1999 to 2005.

Ahmed has built a number of houses in recent times. If the government takes legal steps against him to know his source of finances for these houses and how much he is earning from them now, the government can unearth more cases of tax evasion, sources said.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) is investigating the sources of the deposits in the four accounts of Ahmed, the sources added.

Following its own investigations and reviewing information provided by the BB, the NBR is almost certain that the BSI has been dodging huge taxes.

The PSI firm recently claimed to the NBR that it did not evade tax. In its defence, the company said it operates under the double taxation avoidance agreement between the BSI Inspectorate Ltd Bangladesh and its UK operations. The NBR however finds this contention totally incorrect and baseless.

"The BSI Inspectorate Ltd has a permanent establishment in Bangladesh. The company is incorporated in Bangladesh and its income is taxable as per double taxation avoidance agreement," the NBR explained.

When The Daily Star contacted Sharfuddin Ahmed, he defended his bank accounts. "The deposits in these accounts actually belong to (my) company. I just kept them in my (personal) account to get interest. I used this interest to set up schools and colleges."

When he was told that according to the BB laws, one cannot transfer such funds to their personal account unless it is vetted by the company's board, Ahmed then replied, "If creating scopes for education through setting up schools and colleges are considered as irregularities, I accept the blame."

On his not showing the actual income in the tax returns, Ahmed said, "What I have shown in my return sheet is meant for the Inspectorate Bangladesh Ltd (the Bangladeshi agent of BSI Inspectorate)."

He claimed that as per a decision of the NBR in 1997, the foreign PSI company does not need to submit any return.

The Tk 174 crore income, he claimed, goes to the BSI only and now if the NBR wants it to file returns, it will.

A high official of NBR said, "There was no PSI company or any office back in 1997. The PSI companies started operations in Bangladesh in 2001 by establishing permanent offices in Dhaka. As per rules, all PSI companies should pay income tax."

"…Now this company is spreading all sorts of lies as the present NBR management detected the scam," he added.

Sharfuddin lashed out at the NBR saying "it is misusing power and making false claims. There are (two) other PSI companies which have done more business than my company has. Why does the NBR not catch them for tax evasion?"

When The Daily Star asked him if he knew the two other PSI companies -- ITS and Bureau Veritas -- have evaded tax and if they did, what is the sum, Sharfuddin said, "I don't know."