Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission will meet finance minister AMA Muhith today to request him to scrape the proposed gain tax on individual investors from the finance bill for the year 2014-15, a BSEC high official told New Age.
He also said that they are very much aware about the fact that the imposition of capital gain tax on individual investors has significant effect on the capital market which was reflected on Sunday.
‘That’s why the commission decided to meet the finance minister to make him understand about the impact of gain tax on individuals,’ he said.
As per 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.
‘BSEC was totally unaware about the government move to impose gain tax on individuals,’ the BSEC official said.
‘The commission is hopeful that the minister will be convinced enough to scrap the gain tax imposed on individuals once the regulator will brief him about the impact of such tax imposition on the capital market,’ he said.
‘Though the imposed tax rate was not significant, the present context of the capital market was not perfect for imposing such tax obligation,’ the official said.
The meeting will also discuss the other newly imposed taxes on the capital market investors, he said.
The government in the proposed budget reduced corporate tax by 2.50 per cent to 35 per cent from existing 37.50 per cent for non-listed companies, while corporate tax for the listed companies remained unchanged at 27.50 per cent.
The key index of Dhaka Stock Exchange, DSEX, on Sunday, the first trading session after the budget proposal was placed before the parliament on Thursday, declined by 1.14 per cent or 50 points.
The Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges will also meet Muhith on Thursday this week to press the government to withdraw the newly imposed tax burden on the capital market investors and overall impact of the budget on the capital market.
DSE managing director Swapan Kumar Bala said in a post-budget press conference on Saturday that collecting source tax on investors’ gain on share transfer at 3 per cent through brokerage houses would not be viable as investors might have another link account with another brokerage house that would make the calculation difficult.
‘That’s why we would request the government to continue the existing taxation system,’ he said.
The government in the proposed budget reduced corporate tax to 35 per cent from existing 37.50 per cent for non listed companies, while corporate tax for the listed companies remained unchanged at 27.50 per cent.
-With New Age input
