The government is likely to offer tax exemption on dividend up to Tk 15,000 that the investors get from the listed companies in the budget for the next fiscal year 2014-2015.
At present, investors get tax exemption on dividend up to Tk 10,000 and they pay tax at a rate of 10 per cent on the amount above Tk 10,000. National Board of Revenue sources said that the rate of tax on dividend beyond Tk 15,000 would remain same at 10 per cent.
The government is also likely to offer tax holiday for five years to the recently demutualised Dhaka Stock Exchange and Chittagong Stock Exchange, they said.
The finance minister AMA Muhith will announce the budget tomorrow.
The Dhaka and Chittagong bourses, which used to enjoy tax holiday as non-profit entity before the demutualisation, recently turned into profit-oriented limited company.
The bourses, which will go for initially public offering to offload shares to general investors, want tax holiday apparently to boost its profit to show higher earning per share.
NBR officials, however, could not confirm about the government decision on the bourses’ other demands like reduction of tax on commission and the current member-turned-shareholders’ demand for tax exemption, for a single time, on unrealised capital gain of shares that had been issued to them after demutualisation.
-With New Age input
