Stock brokers demand 2-year tax holiday

Stock brokers of the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) want a two-year tax holiday with waiver of gain tax on sales proceed of DSE shares in the upcoming budget for the fiscal year 2017-18. The leaders of the stock brokers also urged the government to increase tax-free amount of dividend for small investors from Tk25,000 to Tk1 lakh. DSE Brokers Association of Bangladesh (DBA) placed their demands to the managing director of the country’s premier bourse to include it in the list of demands to be placed to the National Board of Revenue (NBR). Every year, the management of DSE places a set of demands to NBR to consider them for the sake of investors as well as the DSE shareholders. In the written proposal placed to the DSE management recently, the brokers made recommendations for two year tax holiday with waiver of gain tax on sales proceed of DSE shares to attract strategic pattern. “If the government keeps an option for tax waiver for the DSE share sales in the upcoming budget, it would help attract strategic partner as well as investors,” DBA president Ahmed Rashid Lali told the Dhaka Tribune. The platform of the brokers also demanded reduction of rate of Advance Income Tax (AIT) on trade volume from 0.05% to 0.015% and 10% tax on dividend as final tax liability. “Long term investment helps bring stability in the stock market. If the government considers the issues and introduces tax ceiling on holding share for years, it would encourage long-term investment,” said Rashid, also a former vice-president of DSE. To encourage multinational and local big companies to be listed on the stock market, the brokers urged the government to reduce tax gap between listed and non-listed companies.