TDS Desk:

The number of bank accounts with deposits of Tk1 crore or more has skyrocketed during the past 15 years of Awami League’s rule.

In 15 and a half years of the regime, the number of such bank accounts in Bangladesh has surged by nearly 1 lakh, according to Bangladesh Bank data.

The data shows that, in December 2008, just before the Awami League-led Grand Alliance came to power, the country’s banking sector had 19,163 bank accounts with crore or more taka deposits.

The number has now exceeded 1 lakh. As of June this year, the banks have 1,18,784 accounts in which depositors have Tk1 crore or more.

This means that since the Awami League government took power in 2009, the number of crore-taka accounts has increased by 99,621.

As of December 2008, there were 19,163 crore-taka accounts in the country’s banking sector, holding a total of Tk77,239 crore.

During the past 15 and a half years, the amount deposited in crore-taka accounts has increased by more than Tk6.95 lakh crore.

In June, the total deposits in all banks amounted to over Tk18.39 lakh crore, with around Tk7.73 lakh crore of the deposits held in crore-taka accounts.

Currently, such accounts own 42% of total deposits in the country’s banking sector, the central bank data suggests.

Zahid Hussain, former lead economist of the World Bank’s Dhaka office, told the Daily Sun that it happened due to the country’s income and wealth inequality.

Economic development has become limited to a single group and the rich are getting richer and the incomes of the lower-middle and middle-income people are shrinking, he said.

Zahid Hussain believes that the rising inflation during the last one year and a half has inflicted economic hardship on many, but it has also created opportunities for some.

“High inflation has inadvertently channelled more money into the market, allowing some individuals to amass savings,” he added.

According to the central bank officials, an account of crore-taka does not mean an account of a millionaire person because there are many institutional accounts apart from individual accounts.

There is no specific limit to how many bank accounts an individual or an organisation can open.

As a result, one organisation or an individual has multiple accounts. The accounts with Tk1 crore or more do not belong only to the people. Many institutions can also own some of them, Bangladesh Bank officials said.

HOW MUCH DEPOSIT IN WHICH ACCOUNT?

According to Bangladesh Bank data, at the end of June, the account holding deposits from Tk1-5 crore stood at 93,953. The total deposit in these accounts stood at more than Tk1.99 lakh crore.

The number of accounts holding Tk50 crore or above totaled 1,818 with deposits reaching Tk2.69 lakh crore.

There are 12,691 accounts holding deposits between Tk5-10 crore and the amount of deposits in these accounts totaled Tk9,079,281 lakh. The amount of deposits in 4,311 accounts between Tk10-15 crores is Tk5,216,358 lakh.

HOW MANY CRORE-TAKA OWNERS IN THE COUNTRY

While the number of accounts with Tk1 crore or more in the country’s banks is known, there is no accurate statistics available for the actual number of crore-taka owners in the country.

According to the economists, a person cannot be considered a crore-taka owner merely by depositing money from selling property or winning a lottery; from an economic perspective, a crore-taka owner is someone who has a consistent deposit or cash flow of Tk 1 crore taka or more.

Having an account with Tk1 crore in the bank does not automatically make someone a crore-taka owner; it only reflects the amount of money deposited in the bank, they said.

Moreover, many crore-taka account owners may not have significant savings in the bank but possess substantial movable and immovable assets, both domestically and abroad, amounting to over Tk1 crore.

Additionally, the list of individuals with deposits exceeding Tk1 crore taka can include institutions or multiple individuals, and one person may have multiple crore-taka accounts.

Thus, this report from the bank does not provide a clear picture of the actual number of crore-taka in the country, and there are no statistics available on this matter.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), after the country’s independence in 1971, the number of crore-taka accounts increased from 5 in 1972 to 47 in 1975.

In 1980, the number of such account holders reached 98 and then in 1990, it grew to 943.

By 1996, the number increased to 2,594 and then in five years, in 2001, the number rose to 5,162, Bangladesh Bank data showed.

The number of crore-taka accounts continued to grow faster in the years that followed.  It surged to 8,887 in 2006 and 19,163 in 2008.

At the end of December 2020, the number increased to 93,890 and exceeded the 1 lakh mark in December 2021, reaching 1 lakh and 1,976.

At the end of December 2023, the number stood at 1 lakh and 16,908, up from 1 1 lakh and 9,946 during the same period in 2022.