A high official at a private bank said, "The step has been taken to give black money holders an opportunity to whiten their black money at a comparatively low rate."

Some black money holders are even whitening future black money by paying the government only 7.5 per cent tax in advance as the National Bureau of Revenue (NBR) is receiving only the tax pay slip, not their account balance, he added.

Although Friday is a weekly holiday, today is being considered the last working day of the current fiscal year.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) directed all commercial banks to keep their branches open today to collect revenue.

The banks circulated the BB instruction to all their branches to keep the offices open until 9:00pm.

The NBR in a press release said all income tax offices will remain open for the greater interest of tax payers.

Source said this will provide the black money holders, along with the general tax payers, an opportunity to pay their taxes to whiten black money.

A huge amount of black money was whitened in the last few weeks, the sources said, adding that around Tk 1,309 crore was whitened up to May this year whereas more than Tk 1,000 crore was whitened in the first week of June.