The government has made A-Challan mandatory for depositing all public revenues and other government receipts effective from 1 July. The move aims to bring every receipt into Treasury Single Account in real time, ending manual challans and strengthening public cash management.
According to a press release issued this morning, from the commencement of FY2026-27, no ministry, division, department, or subordinate office will be permitted to collect or deposit government revenue through any system other than A-Challan.
Any separate arrangements currently in use for collecting public receipts must be discontinued. Funds lying in commercial bank accounts must be transferred to the government’s Treasury Single Account through A-Challan by 30 June.
The decision comes amid a period of significant growth for the digital platform. In FY2025-26, Tk4,07,225.94 crore was collected through the system, representing a nearly 50 per cent increase from the Tk2,65,708 crore collected in FY2024-25.
The volume of transactions also saw a sharp rise, with the platform processing 6.75 crore challans in FY2025-26, up 71.7 per cent from 3.93 crore in the previous year.
Since its introduction by Finance Division in FY2019-20 as part of broader public financial management reforms, A-Challan has mobilised more than Tk10.63 lakh crore in government receipts across over 19.03 crore challans.
The full implementation of the system is expected to help the government determine its actual cash position more accurately, reduce idle public money in scattered bank accounts, and improve overall cash management.
For the government, immediate transfers to Treasury Single Account maintained with Bangladesh Bank will enable real-time monitoring of receipts, improve transparency, and reduce dependence on unnecessary borrowing.
The system also supports automatic reconciliation. Payment information is automatically matched among Bangladesh Bank, relevant accounting offices, and concerned government institutions.
Credit scrolls sent by Bangladesh Bank are auto-uploaded to iBAS++, allowing accounts to be updated without the delays and errors associated with manual reconciliation.
Additionally, an A-Challan dashboard provides real-time information on receipts and transaction status to ministries and departments.
Under the previous manual system, citizens were often required to deposit challans at designated branches of Bangladesh Bank or Sonali Bank, leading to unnecessary travel, long wait times, and the risk of fake challans.
The web-based A-Challan system addresses these issues by allowing deposits through – counters of all branches of Bangladesh Bank and commercial banks, internet banking and debit or credit cards, mobile financial services (MFS) such as bKash, Nagad, Rocket, Upay, and Tap.
Once a payment is completed, a challan receipt is generated instantly and can be used on the same day.
Online challans alone surged by 92 per cent to 5.36 crore in the last fiscal year, while online collections rose 54.5 per cent to Tk11,298.12 crore. Over-the-counter (OTC) transactions also grew, with collections reaching Tk3,86,397.55 crore during the same period.
