The government will take strong measures to prevent money from being laundered through over-invoicing and under-invoicing, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said yesterday.

Money laundering mainly takes place through banking and customs systems, he told reporters after a meeting of the national coordination committee related to prevention of money laundering.

Scanner systems will be strengthened in the customs to prevent laundering, Kamal said.

He said a separate cell similar to pre-shipment inspection companies would be set up at the National Board of Revenue to monitor prices to detect over and under invoicing through letters of credit.

Additional penalties will be imposed on businesspeople found to be laundering money through fake declarations, he said.

Money laundering and terrorism financing have to be stopped by any means, the minister said. “If necessary, laws will be reformed to prevent money laundering.”

He also touched upon the tax avoidance issue saying that many foreign companies were working in Bangladesh but the government does not get tax from them.

In future, foreign companies will have to establish partnership with local companies for business, so that the government gets at least half of that not being paid in taxes, he said.