The proposed budget for the financial year 2022-23 did not give due importance to the country’s capital market, although it was made more conducive to industrialization, stakeholders said.
“Government paid less attention to the sector when preparing the budget. We had seven pre-budget proposals, of which it only considered one,” said Dhaka Stock Exchange chairman Eunusur. Rahman, during a post-budget seminar organized by the Bangladesh Institute of Capital. Market (BICM) at its headquarters in the capital on Tuesday.
“Although the budget reduced corporate tax for listed companies from 2.5% to 20%, it imposed several conditions such that they must come to market by unloading 10% share through d an initial public offering and have to maintain banking channels for transactions on Tk12 lakh which ultimately makes it very difficult to use the facility,” he added.
BICM Executive Chairman Prof. Mahmuda Akhter, Chattogram Stock Exchange Chairman Asif Ibrahim, Dhaka University Professor Mohammed Helal Uddin and Capital Market Journalists Forum Chairman Ziaur Rahman , were present at the event entitled “Budget FY 2022-22 implications for the capital market”.
Highlighting capital market infrastructure reform, Asif Ibrahim said for-profit public enterprises should be enlisted in the market to make it sustainable in the long term.
He urged the government to reduce taxes on brokerage house transactions.
“Lack of faith, due to manipulation and lack of good governance, worsens the situation in the capital market. The regulator must work properly to overcome this,” Professor Helal Uddin said.
Mentioning that no notice was served despite several companies’ share prices surging three to four times a few days ago, he added that there were some irregularities. “Currently, companies get notices if their stock price goes up 2-3 times, so the number of transactions has gone down,” the professor said.
Regarding the undisclosed financial investment opportunity, Helal Uddin said he failed to attract a substantial sum of money in the capital market. “So there is no difference whether the facility exists or not.”
