Bangladesh Merchant Bankers Association (BMBA) urged the government to remove corporate tax disparity between non-listed companies and merchant banks.
In the proposed budget for next fiscal year beginning from July, Finance Minister AMA Muhith has proposed to reduce corporate tax for non-listed companies to 35% from 37.5%.
But the tax rates for other types of companies including merchant banks remain unchanged. The tax rate for merchant banks is 37.5% and for banks, insurers and non-banking financial institutions is 42.5%.
“This is a gross disparity between merchant banks and non-listed companies although the merchant banks are also non-listed companies,” said BMBA Vice-President Akter H Sannamat.
He was speaking at a post-budget press conference in Dhaka yesterday.
BMBA President Tanjil Chowdhury and other members of the association also spoke on the occasion.
The association also demanded reducing corporate tax for banks and non-banking financial institutions taking the present situation into account.
“The merchant banks are suffering financial hardships now as market has been dull for a long time. Providing corporate tax facility to the merchant banks would, therefore, be a timely decision,” said Akter H Sannamat.
Showing disappointment at the proposed budgetary measures for the stock market, he alleged their proposals have not been taken into account in preparing the budget.
About the capital gain tax, the BMBA leaders asserted it is not a right time to impose tax on capital gain from selling shares in the stock market as the bourses are yet to recover from the 2010 debacle.