Unclaimed money stood at Tk 108 cr

Zarif Mahmud: At the end of 2017, more than Tk 1.5 million was deposited in many public and private bank accounts. The owner of this huge amount of money could not be found. However, with the passage of time, the amount of money also becomes quite large. Until last August 12, 2021, about Tk 106 crore 18 lakh 22 thousand 503 lying in many accounts of public and private banks for five years.
Deposits ranging from Tk 10 lakh to Tk 1 lakh are deposited in the accounts where the money is lying. However, even though so much money was deposited, its owner could not be found. As there is no real owner, the money has been deposited in Bangladesh Bank. This information has been obtained from the central bank sources.
According to Section 35 of the Banking Companies Act, 1991 (as amended 2016), if there is no transaction as a bank for 10 years and the customer of the deposit can’t be found, the banks have to deposit the money with Bangladesh Bank. According to the information, Shoaibur Rahman is one of these accountant holders. In the Beanibazar branch of Islami Bank, there is Tk 59,110 as savings in his name. The customer named Shoaibur Rahman made the transaction from his account in October 2006. Since then, neither Shoaib nor his family have come to look for the money. The bank did not respond to the notice sent by the bank along with the address mentioned.
Jahed Mia, a customer of Bishwanath branch of the same bank has Tk 63,600 in his account, Basar Uddin has Tk 20,000 in his account and Moyna Mia’s account at Goalabazar branch has Tk 40,060 and several crores of unclaimed money. Thus, Prime Bank, Bank Asia and several other public and private banks have hundreds of crores of taka.
According to the Bangladesh Bank, the banks deposited an undisclosed amount of Tk 15 crore 21 lakh 30 thousand with the central bank in 2016. Tk 10 crore 64 lakh 36 thousand in 2016, Tk 10 crore 46 lakh 71 thousand in 2019, Tk 34 crore 45 lakh 33 thousand in 2020. In the last 2021, Tk 36 crore 37 lakh 50 thousand has been deposited.
In all, in the last five years (till 12 August 2021), the amount of unclaimed money deposited in the government treasury of the central bank of the banks is Tk 106 crore 18 lakh 22 thousand 502 and 96 paise.