CSE seeks black money in stocks for another year

The Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) has asked for continuing the opportunity to whiten undisclosed money by investing in the capital market, without questioning the source of money, in the forthcoming fiscal 2022-23.

"The proposed budget has suspended the special provision for investing undisclosed money in the capital market by individual taxpayers paying tax at a flat rate of 10%.  We cordially request for continuing with this provision for another year.

"This will add to the government's revenue collection and help curb money laundering apart from strengthening the market," CSE Chairman Asif Ibrahim said while formally giving the port city bourse's reaction to the proposed FY23 national budget at an online press conference on Saturday.

Asif Ibrahim welcomed the budget proposal to reduce the corporate tax rate and recommended that the gap in tax rates for listed and unlisted companies be raised to 10% from 7.5%.

He said, "At present, the gap in tax rates for listed and unlisted companies is very small, which is why good companies are not interested in entering this market. Besides, companies have to comply with various regulations once they get listed on the capital market, for which they have to spend extra money. As a result, they cannot enjoy any real benefit of the tax rate rebate."

The CSE boss also called for selling shares of state-owned for-profit companies, saying that state-owned companies could be included in the capital market by offloading shares as a source of funding, and there could be special tax exemptions in this case.

He recommended that the tax deducted from the dividend income of the listed companies be considered as final tax.

He also demanded that the tax-free limit on dividend income from listed companies be increased to Tk100,000 from Tk50,000.

Up to Tk25,000 cash dividends received from mutual funds or unit funds are income tax-free. The CSE chairman proposed that the government keep the cash dividends earned from mutual funds or unit funds completely income tax-free. This will help in the expansion of the mutual fund industry, he hoped.

The online seminar was also addressed, among others, by the managing director and several directors of the CSE. 

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal unveiled the Tk6,78,064 crore national budget, which is 15.2% of the country's gross domestic product, for fiscal 2022-23 at Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday.