Urges govt not to impose gain tax on individual investors
Leaders of the Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association on Tuesday opposed the finance minister AMA Muhith’s latest remark on capital market investors.
Such remark from the government will affect the overall capital market, they said while addressing a post-budget press conference held at a city hotel.Muhith, after holding a meeting with the stock market operators on Thursday, had told reporters that many of the country’s share market investors were ‘fatkabaz’ (touts).
The key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, declined by 1.07 per cent or 47.21 points on Sunday, the first trading session after the finance minister had made the comment.
BMBA president Tanjil Chowdhury said the finance minister should not have branded all the investors as ‘fatkabaz’ as such word could create negative impact over the market.
‘The word (fatkabaz) might be appropriate for some stock market investors, but not for all,’ Tanjil said.
Requesting the government high-ups not to brand all the capital market investors with such word (fatkabaz), BMBA vice-president Akter Hossain Sannamat said they had placed some proposals to the government which remained unaddressed in the national budget. On the other hand, they were branded with such word (fatkabaz), he wondered.
Using such word affects the whole market, so using such word for the capital market investors should be stopped, he said.
Opposing the imposition of 3-5 per cent gain tax on individual investors in the proposed budget, Sannamat said the government move would give a signal to the investors that it had not enough concentration in the capital market.
‘That’s why the government should reconsider the issue,’ he said.
The government’s decision to scrap 10 per cent tax rebate for the companies which will issue more than 20 per cent dividends should be revised, Sannamat said.
He said tax for non-listed companies have been cut by 2.5 per cent which will act as an incentive for those companies. Since, said he, merchant banks are non-listed too; they should be entitled to such incentive as many banks had lost money during the historic share market crash in 2010.
‘Tax for non-listed companies has been cut by 2.5 per cent which will act as an incentive for those companies. Since merchant banks are non-listed too, they should be entitled to such incentive as many banks had lost money during the share market crash in 2010,’ Sannamat said.
He said that the merchant banks waived interest for the affected small investors as per the government decision, but the expenditure for interest waiver was yet to be considered as tax free expenditure despite a finance ministry order to the National Board of Revenue.
-With New Age input
