Bangladesh has extended its legal scope for whitening black money until June 2022, allowing individuals to declare undeclared income by investing it in financial assets, real estate, and industry. The decision has been criticised by economists, business leaders, and civil society members. While the government does not formally recognise the prevalence of the black economy, a number of metrics indicate it is thriving, with economists estimating the amount of black money to be around one third, or 33%, of Bangladesh’s annual GDP. Corruption-driven bribe and rent-seeking are cited as key sources of black money by leading experts such as Professor Abul Barkat. It is argued that the government needs to develop a mechanism to measure or estimate the size of the black economy in order to effectively deal with it.