UNB, Dhaka

In a bid to prevent forgeries, no official passport will be issued without government order (GO) from now on, said Director General of the Department of Immigration and Passports Brig Gen Md Masud Rezwan on Sunday.

He also said the DIP will start issuing new passports with a validity period of 10 years within this year once the issuance of passport lots having validity for five years is completed.

While briefing reporters at the DIP headquarters at Agargaon in the city, Masud Rezwan said several rules have been amended regarding the issuance of official passports following some scams. “From now on, government officials and employees have to take GOs from authorities concerned with a copy showing in the websites of their respective organisations.”

He said they will not issue any official passport without verifying the GOs on the respective websites.

The Home Ministry issued a circular on Thursday in this regard.

On the basis of GOs, the government officials and employees under the revenue sector will get official passports free of cost for official visit while paying half of the fee for treatment, hajj and visit purposes, the DIP DG said.

For other purposes, they will get ordinary passports submitting ‘no objection certificate’ (NOC) from the authorities concerned paying fees, he added.

Replying to a query, Masud Rezwan said the government has decided to issue new passports with a 10 years’ validity taking into considerations various limitations of existing five-year validity passports.