There has been a sharp fall in the sale of national savings bonds. In September, these sales reached a nadir. This month, the net bond sales were only Tk 9.85 billion, as against Tk 43.54 billion last year. Year on year, the sales have fallen by Tk 33.7 billion.
The trend has been mentioned in a Bangladesh Bank report. Economists and bankers say that the fall in sales is due to the imposition of various restrictions.
A researcher of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Dr Zayed Bakht, says: “The government has reduced taking loans from bonds. Since TIN and bank accounts are mandatory, many cannot invest in bonds.”
In the past, black money used to be invested in bonds which have now stopped, he said.
“As a result, the sales of bond is seeing a slump.”
Due to the investment of black money in bonds, the interest income of the government rose unnaturally, said Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) fellow, Professor Mostafizur Rahman.

Now people with limited income are buying bonds, added professor Mostafizur.

Bangladesh Bank sources say that to pay high interest, the government’s cash reserve is under pressure. From 2008 till 2018, the government had to pay more than Tk 1,000 billion as interest for bonds. In the last fiscal year, the government had to pay around Tk 390 billion as interest for bonds.

This year, the government plans to borrow Tk 770.33 billion from internal sources and, of this, Tk 270 billion is from bonds.

There are four types of savings bonds in the market: five year family savings bond, five year pension bond, five year profit based and three year profit based payable every three months.

The average interest rate is more than 11 percent and these bonds can be bought at all branches of Bangladesh Bank, specified banks of commercial banks, national savings bureau office and post office.