Bangladesh has seen rise in the number of millionaires despite the inflation threat caused by global crisis.
The number of bank customers with at least Tk1 crore in their accounts increased by 4,860 in the last April-June period, 6,481 in last January-June period and 8,539 in the last fiscal year, according to a report of the Bangladesh Bank (BB).
The number of millionaire bank account holders stood at 1,08,457 in the second quarter (April-June) of this year, which was 1,03,597 in the first quarter of this year and 1,01,976 at the end of December 2021, it mentioned.
The report said, the number of accounts with at least Tk1 crore is not even 1 percent of the total bank accounts in the country, but they hold about 43.23 percent of the total deposits in the banks.
The total amount of deposits in the banks at the end of June this year was over Tk 14,71,000 crore.
Dr Saleh Uddin Ahmed, eminent economist and former governor of the BB, said, “It is an inequality of income and wealth. The richer is earning more money and the lower middle classes are gradually earning low.”
During the time of Covid pandemic, the big businessmen got more benefits and are still getting them, he said, adding that, from domestic business to foreign trade, big businessmen get more opportunities.
“I saw in the newspaper today that the bank is giving Tk 95-96 per dollar to finance export bills of small exporters. It will not give more than that. But big factories and garment traders are getting Tk 99 to Tk 101. Due to such discrimination, the income of a class is increasing,” he mentioned.
Currently there are 85,848 accounts with Tk1 crore to Tk 5 crore. These accounts hold more than Tk1,76,000 crore, which is 11.24 percent of total deposits in the banks.
Besides, the number of accounts with over Tk 50 crores is 1,805, which hold over Tk 2,36,000 crores –15.05 percent of total deposits in the country's banks.
The BB officials said that the account of crores of Taka does not mean the account of a millionaire. Because, there are many institutions besides individuals in the list of keeping more than one crore Taka in the bank, they mentioned.
On the other hand, there is no specific limit on how many bank accounts individuals and organizations can open, they said, adding that one organization or individual has multiple accounts.
Among them, there are accounts of various government institutions and organizations worth crores of Taka, they mentioned.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data, after independence, there were only five accounts with crores of taka in the country in 1972, which increased to 47 in 1975. In 1980, the number of millionaire account holders was 98.
Then it was 943 in 1990, 2,594 in 1996, 5,162 in 2001, 8,887 in 2006 and 19,163 in 2008.
At the end of December in 2020, it stood at 93,890. In December 2021, the number of millionaire accounts increased to 1,01,976.
