- published: 03 Mar 2016
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The Taka (Bengali:টাকা, sign: ৳ or Tk, code: BDT) is the currency of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of the country, controls the issuance of the currency, except one taka and two taka notes, which are the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance of the government of Bangladesh. The most commonly used symbol for the Taka is Tk and ৳, used on receipts while purchasing goods and services. One taka is subdivided into 100 poisha.
In Bengali, the word "taka" is also commonly used generically to mean any money, currency, or notes. Thus, colloquially, a person speaking Bengali may use "taka" to refer to money regardless of what currency it is denominated in. The currency sign is encoded in Unicode at U+09F3 ৳ bengali currency sign (HTML: ৳
).
In 1971, the erstwhile province of East Bengal became the independent nation of Bangladesh with the Pakistan Rupee as its interim currency. The taka became Bangladesh's currency in 1972, replacing the Pakistani rupee at par. The word "taka" is derived from the Sanskrit term तनक tanka which was an ancient denomination of silver coin. The term taka was widely used in different parts of India but with varying meanings. In north India, taka was a copper coin equal to two paise and in the south, it was equal to four paisa or one anna. It was only in Bengal and Orissa where taka was equal to rupee. In all areas of India, taka was used informally for money in general. However, Bengal was the stronghold of taka.