Photo: Collected
The country's stock market is now in transition due to domestic and foreign problems along with a crisis of confidence. In such a situation, the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) has urged not to increase the tax burden on the stock market.
DSE Chairman Hafiz Muhammad Hasan Babu said this in a press conference on pre-budget at Dhaka Club in the capital on Tuesday. At the time, he raised several demands, including not imposing capital gain tax in the budget of the next financial year (2024-25).
The DSE chairman said that a crisis of confidence has arisen in various contexts. A context is created during the coronavirus period. “Later, the Russia-Ukraine war created a negative impact on the capital market. The overall global economic recession has also affected the stock market. In such a context, we could not turn the capital market around.”
He said, the country's stock market is currently in transition. “In this situation, we do not think there is a need to create a negative attitude towards the market by imposing new tax burden without giving incentives. When the market returns to normal, the government or the revenue board can discuss with us and take further steps.”
The chairman of the country's main stock market said that securities transactions conducted through stock exchange members collect tax at the rate of 0.05 per cent. “This tax rate is significantly higher than our neighbouring countries. This tax deduction rate needs to be reduced in line with international best practices.” He proposed reducing the rate of such tax from 0.05 per cent to 0.015 per cent considering the current market conditions and the impact of the pandemic and the global economic crisis.
Besides, the DSE chairman made several proposals in written form. One of the proposals is the reduction of TDS rate on share market transaction value from 0.05 per cent to 0.020 per cent. He demanded that tax on dividend income at source be treated as full and final settlement and tax exemption up to the first Tk 50,000 of dividend received.
Currently, there is a gap of 7.5 per cent in the corporate tax rate of non-listed companies compared to listed companies. The DSE has proposed increasing this margin from 10 to 12.50 per cent and not imposing new tax on capital gains from transactions in securities listed on stock exchanges.
DSE Director Richard De Rozario, Sharif Anwar Hossain, Acting Managing Director Sattik Ahmed Shah, GM Md Samiul Islam, Mohammad Asadur Rahman, and others were also present in the press conference.
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