DSE urges not to impose new tax burden on troubled stock market

The country's stock market is now in transition due to domestic and foreign problems along with the 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 claimed this in a press conference on pre-budget at Dhaka Club in the capital on Tuesday (May 28). 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 Corona period. Later, the Russia-Ukraine war created a negative impact on the capital markets. 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, currently the country's stock market is 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 NBR 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 percent. This tax rate is significantly higher than our neighboring countries. This tax deduction rate needs to be reduced in line with international best practices. He proposed to reduce the rate of such tax from 0.05 percent to 0.015 percent considering the current market conditions and the impact of the Corona epidemic and due to the global economic crisis.

Besides, DSE Chairman made several proposals in written form. These are- reduction of TDS rate on share market transaction value from 0.05 percent to 0.020 percent. He demanded that tax on dividend income at source be treated as full and final settlement and tax exemption up to the first 50 thousand taka of dividend received.

Currently there is a gap of 7.5 percent in the corporate tax rate of non-listed companies compared to listed companies. The DSE has proposed to increase this margin from 10 to 12.50 percent and not impose 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.