The number of these accounts also rose to 71,346 last year from 62,710 in 2019.
The Daily Star talked to a number of bankers, tax officials and analysts, who pointed out that there is a strong link between the deposit growth and the opportunity given to whiten black money.
They also referred to the reduced scope for laundering money abroad amid the Covid-19 pandemic and also cap on investment in national savings certificates.
In the current fiscal year, the government gave the opportunity to whiten black money by declaring undisclosed wealth and income in tax returns upon payment of only 10 percent tax on the undisclosed amount without any questions about the sources of income.
Remittance rises 35pc in 9 months
Remittances sent by migrant workers and non-resident Bangladeshis rose 35 per cent year-on-year in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, hitting $18.60 billion in total.
In March alone, migrants remitted $1.91 billion from different countries, up 50 per cent from a year ago, the highest growth since last August, showed data from Bangladesh Bank.
Remittance inflow, one of the main barometers of the economy, dipped from March to May of 2020 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Inflow rebounded in June and its upward trend continued as hundi, an illegal medium of fund transfer, declined amid lockdowns slapped by states and restrictions on movement.
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Mobile money in the COVID-19 pandemic
Photo: Rashed Sumon
The most defining perk of using Mobile Financial Services (MFS) is being able to use mobile phones to access financial services and execute financial transactions. Put simply, cashless payment makes life easier.
Sagufta Nusrat, an executive of a Dhaka-based private company, is a customer of the country s leading MFS provider bKash.
In the morning, Nusrat takes an Uber to go to office and pays the bill through her digital wallet. And in the evening, when she returns home from office, she purchases groceries from superstores and makes the payments from her bKash account.