The government plans to launch a national lottery game to be played twice a week that is deemed as a good instrument to help boost non-tax revenue significantly.
Officials said the Finance Division of the ministry of finance (MoF) is now working on the game's composition and legal matters.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith has instructed the division to do the spadework on a proposal made by a Bangladeshi expatriate who had lived in the United Kingdom and learnt about the lottery.
The innovative proposition by Syed Mominul Hoq for revenue generation was placed with the MoF in October 2014.
Sources told the FE that the Finance Division took the proposal seriously as it might be a very potential source of earnings for government exchequer.
This will be a "win-win" game both for the government side and the lottery players.
People familiar with the initiative said the lottery authority, to be formed through enacting laws, will award 50 per cent of the lottery proceeds as prize money.
The tickets will be available at agents' stores across the country or online at Tk 20 each, according to the proposal.
But, the ticket price might be Tk 50 during special occasions, like Eid, Durga Puja and Christmas, for the players to play on high stakes to hit the jackpot.
The national lottery of the United Kingdom has announced 10 millionaires for this year's Valentine's Day (February 14).
In the proposal for introducing the game in Bangladesh, the top prize is, however, yet to be fixed.
All prizes will depend on sales of tickets for each game. The prize money is tax-free.
This will be televised game. But mobile-phone messages and internet option will be available, a senior official, who is in the know, told the FE Thursday.
He hinted that the first prize might be worth minimum Tk 1.0 million, or more, to lure people into putting their stakes on the jackpot.
The national lottery game may be dubbed 'national lottery', though the proponent wanted it be named 'national bet'.
Mr Hoq said the government might raise Tk 5.0 billion from such betting in initial years of drawings as Bangladesh is a highly populous country.
"I had spent eight years in London and I participated in the UK national lottery-Lotto-many times," he said.
The British government earns billions of pounds sterling each year from the Lotto, he said.
Mr Hoq said: I proposed it to the Finance Minister for its adequate potential in Bangladesh.
There will be many prizes, including jackpot.
Mr Hoq said the goal is to spread the wealth and make more and more millionaires in Bangladesh and help reduce poverty.
Bangladesh's headcount poverty got reduced now to 24.3 per cent while hardcore poverty declined to nearly 10 per cent-for years of interventional programmes under a UN-designed recipe called MDG.
"I want we should have own organisation on the lottery as it will save much fund," he said.
There is system of franchising the other internationally reputed lottery organisations, and they take much as their loyalties.
Mr Muhith, who had served in the Ershad cabinet in the 1980s, introduced the deposit pension scheme (DPS), a monthly savings tool for limited- income group of people, with the commercial banks.
A retired person had proposed the scheme to him during his tenure as finance and planning minister in the early 1980s.
He took another creative proposal on the introduction of NRB Bank mooted by one joint director working at the central bank of Bangladesh.
A senior official at the finance division said many development works might be funded from such type of sources.
He noted that many advanced countries implement many projects for the public good.
He said the sales might be stabilised with a growth rate and many plans might be executed.
The lottery system is now available in almost all advanced countries, including the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK.
jasimharoon@yahoo.com
Nat\\\'l lottery under study to boost govt revenue
Jasim Uddin Haroon | Published: February 13, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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