The United Arab Emirates (the country’s famous city Dubai) exports a large amount of gold bars to Bangladesh every year. Bangladesh is one of the top 10 destinations for gold bar exports from the country. However, according to official statistics from Bangladesh, gold imports from the United Arab Emirates to Bangladesh are very small. gold-worth-tk-32000
The reason for this discrepancy in the gold trade figures of the two countries is that most of the gold bars come ‘illegally’. Bangladesh loses revenue due to the illegal gold trade. On the other hand, illegally imported gold is used in crime and smuggling.
According to the calculations in the database of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the United Arab Emirates exported gold worth 3.666 billion 6.4 million dollars to Bangladesh in the 10 years from 2014 to 2023. The source of this information is the United Nations Commodity Trade Database UN Commodity Trade and the UAE authorities. On the other hand, according to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) of Bangladesh, only 8.2 million dollars worth of gold was imported legally from the United Arab Emirates in these 10 years. That is, gold worth $3.65 billion did not enter the country legally. gold-worth-tk-32000
If we calculate it using the World Bank’s average annual price, it can be seen that the amount of gold brought from Dubai is more than 78 tons or 78 thousand kg. According to the average dollar price, this amount of gold is worth about 32 thousand crore taka in Bangladeshi currency. It is worth noting that this calculation does not include gold bars or jewelry brought by passengers.
On condition of anonymity, a gold trader in the country told Prothom Alo that everyone knows that a large part of the gold that comes illegally to Bangladesh is smuggled to India. The United Arab Emirates keeps accurate records of gold exports. But since it comes illegally to Bangladesh, it is not included in the accounts of this country’s government agencies.
Big discrepancy
Various products are imported into Bangladesh from the United Arab Emirates. According to the NBR, in 2023, cement raw material clinker was at the top of the list of imported products from the Emirates. At that time, clinker worth $114 million was imported from the country. However, no gold was imported from the country that year. However, ESCWA data says otherwise. According to the data of this UN agency, in 2023, gold was the top export product from the UAE to Bangladesh. This year, Bangladesh imported $538.5 million worth of gold from the country. Clinker was the second top import product. Not only that year, but in 9 out of 10 years from 2014 to 2023, gold was exported from the UAE to Bangladesh the most.
The ESCWA’s account of exports from the UAE to Bangladesh is similar to the account of trade in goods other than gold. Due to the time difference between the shipment of export goods and the clearance of import goods, the account is slightly higher or lower. Prothom Alo e-mailed the UAE’s Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Center on February 8, seeking detailed information on who exported this gold from the UAE and who imported it from Bangladesh. However, no response was received until Wednesday.
In addition to the UAE, the UN agency’s database also contains information on gold imports from Kuwait, a country in the Arab region. It shows that $1.9 million worth of gold was exported from Kuwait to Bangladesh in 2023. However, according to Bangladeshi government accounts, there is no record of a single tola of gold being officially imported from Kuwait to Bangladesh.
