Govt may slash proposed tax rate on transaction by share mkt members

Doulot Akter Mala

The government is actively considering slashing the proposed rate of tax on transaction of share/debenture by stock exchange members following request of the bourses.

The budget for 2010-2011 has proposed to increase the tax on members of share market by threefold, to 0.1 per cent from the existing 0.025 per cent.

Officials said that the tax at source on brokerage house might be lowered to a reasonable level for the next fiscal.

"The increased tax at source on brokerage house will cause additional expenditure of the individual investors," said a senior government official.

Brokerage houses might increase their commission on share transaction to pay the additional tax, which will affect the small investors, he added.

Presently, brokerage house deducts maximum commission at 1.0 per cent for share market investors. Officials and investors feared that the rates of commission might go up with the sharp hike of tax on brokerage house.

The members of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) met the high-ups of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Sunday to reconsider the tax measure.

The DSE has placed a written proposal seeking cut on capital gain tax to 5.0 per cent from 10 per cent, keep the tax at source unchanged on stock exchange members, include the share market in public private partnership (PPP) initiative.

"We have received a positive response from the NBR on the proposal for tax cut," said DSE president Shakil Rizvi.

The NBR is convinced to revise the proposed tax measure, he said adding that they need finance minister's consent to take any decision regarding tax cut on share market.

The revenue officials are willing to escalate the growth of capital market, he said.

The tax at source on commission of stock exchange members was raised to 0.025 per cent from 0.015 per cent in 2009-2010 fiscal.

The NBR has estimated around Tk 1.25 billion revenue in the current fiscal from the tax measures on stock exchange members.

In the budget for 2010-11 the finance minister proposed to raise advance income tax (AIT) on 12 potential revenue generating areas to boost direct tax collection in the upcoming fiscal.