Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to request finance minister AMA Muhith to scrap the proposed tax on individual investors’ capital gain, a BSEC senior official told New Age on Sunday. 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.
The BSEC official said that they were very much aware about the fact that the imposition of capital gain tax on individual investors was affecting the capital market.
‘The Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges are trying to get appointment from finance minister AMA Muhith on June 12 to discuss the matters which are affecting the capital market,’ BSEC executive director Saifur Rahman told New Age.
Along with the bourses, BSEC will also request the ministry to scrap unfairly proposals about the stock market in the proposed budget as well as the finance bill, he said.
DSE officials said that they would request the government to withdraw the budget proposals which are affecting the capital market.
They also said that the government should have reduced tax burden from the capital market as the market is suffering since the market crash in 2010-2011 to revive the market and to stimulate investors.
Instead of that, the government is imposing fresh tax burden on the investors with more than Tk 10 lakh capital gain from the market which is not acceptable.
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.
DSE managing director Swapan Kumar Bala said on Saturday in a post-budget press conference that collecting source tax on investors’ gains 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
