The National Board of Revenue (NBR) will appoint international audit firms for scrutinising financial affairs of the pre-shipment inspection (PSI) companies following allegations of corruption against them. "We will appoint international auditors to examine the activities of the PSI companies from the current fiscal," NBR Chairman Khairuzzaman Chowdhury told the FE Tuesday. The NBR has a right to examine the financial and other affairs of the PSI companies as per the agreements signed with them last year. The board will exercise that right, he added. This will be the second attempt by the board to appoint audit firms for a check on the activities of PSI companies after the first move was fizzled out a couple of years ago. It happened because the local agents of the PSI companies are influential businessmen, who maintained strong political lobbies. "But a fresh initiative has already been started. The NBR will carry out the job with a view to establishing transparency in annual import bills worth over US $ 12.0 billion," Chowdhury said. The PSI that covers assessment of imported goods, its value and duties is carried out by organisations in favour of states and countries which lack sufficient logistic support and manpower to do so. Bangladesh introduced PSI system in early 2000 following reports that the customs' assessments at the ports were involved corruption, leading to huge revenue losses. Three companies-- Bureau Veritas, Inter Testing Services and Inspectorate Griffith -- were appointed for conducting the inspection job until 2003 at a cost of about Tk 3.0 billion.
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