A customer who placed Tk 200,000 in a fixed deposit at the Dhaka GPO Savings Bank in July 2022 attempted to withdraw the principal along with three years of interest on 24 July this year. Instead, officials returned his passbook, explaining that the system was showing Tk 12,060 less profit than was actually due.

He is not alone. Numerous fixed deposit holders at the Post Office Savings Bank—both at Dhaka GPO and sub-post offices under its jurisdiction—have been facing similar mismatches in calculated profit, leaving them unable to collect their full payments.

The Postal Directorate says both fixed deposit (FD) and savings (SB) accounts are now run through a digital system introduced under the Finance Division’s Strengthening Public Financial Management to Enable Service Delivery (SPFMS) programme. Manual profit calculations were replaced with this automated process in 2021.

Since March 2025, however, the SPFMS software has been producing irregular profit figures—sometimes less than the correct amount, other times more—resulting in suspended payouts. For the past five months, many account holders have been unable to access either their principal or their interest earnings.

One depositor, who invested Tk 525,000 in May 2024, went to collect the one-year maturity value this May. He expected Tk 53,550 in profit but was shown only Tk 44,152—over Tk 9,000 short. Another customer at the Cantonment sub-post office in May 2023 discovered her profit had been overstated by Tk 27,950 when she tried to withdraw in May this year. In yet another case, a depositor due to receive three years’ profit in July saw the system list Tk 47,370 less than his entitlement.

Postal officials have repeatedly reported the matter to the SPFMS programme—sending formal letters in May, June, and July. The May letter from Dhaka GPO’s Senior Postmaster stated that payment errors were triggering disputes with customers, harming the department’s image, and forcing temporary suspension of withdrawals.

A follow-up letter in June from the Postal Directorate said post offices have no authority to fix the software issues and must halt payments when discrepancies appear. It also noted that repeated appeals—both written and verbal—to the SPFMS office had failed to bring results. The correspondence warned that customer frustration was leading to unrest at several locations, and that the postal department would not be held accountable for withholding legitimate funds due to technical faults.

Postmaster General (Central Circle) Md Altafur Rahman said the responsibility for FD and SB systems lies with SPFMS and confirmed that technical glitches since March have blocked many customers from receiving payments. He stressed that the problem is with the software, not postal operations.

However, Bilquis Jahan Rimi, Additional Secretary (Budget-1) at the Finance Division and Director of the National SPFMS Programme, denied the presence of a systemic flaw. She maintained that any isolated cases would be handled individually and that a solution was in progress and expected soon.