The new budget proposes a five-year tax exemption for Bangladesh bourses to prop up the capital market that has been wobbling after the 2010-2011 debacle.
It also proposes to raise the ceiling of tax-free dividend income for individual investors from Tk 10,000 to Tk 15,000.
In his 2014-15 budget speech on Thursday, Finance Minister AMA Muhith highlighted rattled off a list of measures since 2011 to stabilise the market.
“As a result of the initiatives taken from time to time, the price index and market capitalization of DSE has been quite stable since the beginning of 2013,” he said in the speech.
A frequent fall in share prices forced individual investors at the two bourses to take to the streets in protest on several occasions over the past one year.
In March this year, the Bangladesh Bank set up a share market refinancing fund for the small investors affected by the 2010-11 capital market debacle, allowing them to take loans without guarantors.
