Some 82 people legalised Tk 382 crores of undisclosed money through the stock market in the just-concluded 2011-12 financial year, officials of National Board of Revenue on Tuesday said.
They said money whitening facility by paying 10 per cent tax did not attract the holders of undisclosed money last fiscal year and it also failed to prop up the ailing stock market.
In 2010-11 fiscal year, around Tk 427 crore undisclosed money was legalised.
‘Only 82 holders of undisclosed money from across the country invested Tk 382 crore in the stocks during the last financial year of 2011-12. The revenue board earned Tk 38.20 crore as tax at the rate of 10 per cent from the investment,’ a NBR high official told New Age on Tuesday.
The NBR, however, would not disclose the names of the investors who legalised their money.
Like FY 2010-11, the government in FY 2011-12 also kept the provision of legalising untaxed money by investing in the stock market paying only 10 per cent tax in a desperate effort to boost the volatile stocks which suffered a severe crash in 2011 sparking widespread street protests.
The government also kept the same provision in the budget for the current fiscal year 2012-13.
The NBR said that no questions would be asked about the source of the undeclared income if they invest in the stock market.
A statutory regulatory order issued by NBR said people could invest their undisclosed money by June 2012 and they would have to make a declaration about their investment in the stocks under this scheme to the NBR by July 15, 2012.
Investors would not be able to transfer or withdraw the investment within next two years, NBR officials said.
According to NBR’s provisional data, 82 people from Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Bogra declared to the NBR that they invested undisclosed money in the stocks.
Among them, 69 people from Dhaka invested Tk 338 crore, eight people from Chittagong invested around Tk 20 crore, four people from Khulna invested Tk 7.6 crore and one person from Bogra invested Tk 16 crore in the stocks.
NBR officials said the declared investment was not significant against a lot of untaxed money created every year in Bangladesh.
However, the government has kept the facility open in the ongoing fiscal year to boost the ailing share markets through increasing cash flow.
The stock prices, however, lost 25 per cent in values as the general index of Dhaka Stock Exchange lost 1,545 points in FY 12 amid lack of confidence among investors and liquidity crisis.
Courtesy of New Age
