Bangladesh asks Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to pay $1.1mn in taxes
Muhammad Yunus
The top court in Bangladesh has ordered Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to pay more than USD 1 million in taxes. The microfinance pioneer has been ordered to pay up taxes on a USD 7 million donation made to charitable trusts.
Yunus (83) is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering micro-credit bank. However, he has had a falling outwith Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The prime minister has said that Yunus is "sucking blood" from the poor.
Muhammad Yunus was awarded Nobel Peace Price in the year 2006 for promoting development through Grameen Bank, a bank he founded.
"The Supreme Court... dismissed our petition," Yunus' lawyer Sarder Jinnat Ali told AFP.
No exemption
Bangladesh's Supreme Court upheld a decision passed by a lower court. The apexcourt ruled on Sunday (July 23) that Yunus must pay taxes on his donations as these do not get exemptions under the law.
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Yunus donated 767 million takas ($7 million) to Professor Muhammad Yunus Trust, the Yunus Family Trust and the Yunus Centre between 2011 and 2014.
According to the court order, Yunus must pay a total tax of 150 million taka (USD 1.4 million). Out of this, 30 million taka has already been paid.
Yunus founded Grameen Bank in the 1980s. Through his work, Yunus is credited with helping eradicate extreme poverty in Bangladesh. The bank offered microfinance loans to tens of millions of women in rural areas.
Last year Bangladesh's anti-graft watchdog ordered a wide-ranging probe into firms that Yunus chairs. Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina has attacked Yunus personally. She blamed him for World Bank pulling out from a bridge project. The project was mired in corruption allegations.
When the bridge near Dhaka finally opened in June last year, Hasina said Yunus should be "dipped in a river" for jeopardising its completion.
In March, 40 global figures, including former UN chief Ban Ki-moon and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, published a joint letter calling on Bangladesh to stop "unfair" attacks and harassment of Yunus.
(With inputs from agencies)
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