The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday suggested that the National Board of Revenue should reconsider the newly-imposed gain tax on capital market investors, BSEC officials said. They said the capital market regulator also expressed its concerns over several budgetary moves which had been affecting the capital market in a meeting held at the NBR office in the city.
BSEC chairman M Khairul Hossain along with three other commissioners of the stock market regulatory body were present in the meeting with NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain.
BSEC executive director Saifur Rahman told New Age, ‘During the meeting the commission discussed all the capital market-related budget proposals.’
The commission also recommended that the NBR should refrain from taking any step which could put negative impact on the capital market investors, he said.
According to the proposed finance bill, 3 per cent tax will be slapped on the individuals with more than Tk 10 lakh capital gain in a year, while the gain tax will be 5 per cent if an individual earns more than Tk 20 lakh a year from the capital market.
The key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, on June 8, the first trading session after the budget was placed before parliament on June 5, declined by 1.14 per cent or 50 points.
The BSEC on June 10 and 12 requested the finance minister, AMA Muhith, to scrap the proposed gain tax on individual investors from the finance bill for the fiscal year 2014-15.
The government in the proposed budget reduced corporate tax by 2.50 per cent to 35 per cent from the existing 37.50 per cent for non-listed companies, while corporate tax for the listed companies remained unchanged at 27.50 per cent.
The Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges also requested the finance minister to withdraw the newly-imposed tax burden on the capital market investors.
The government also proposed to scrap the 10-per cent tax rebate for the listed companies which declare 20 per cent or more dividends for their shareholders.
-With New Age input
