The government is committed to restoring investor confidence in the country’s capital market, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman said. He disclosed this today, Wednesday, during the prime minister’s question hour in parliament, in response to a starred question from Khulna-4 MP S.K. Azizul Bari. In Azizul Bari’s absence, the question was raised in parliament by Patuakhali-4 MP A.B.M. Mosharraf Hossain.
Today’s parliament session began at 3pm, presided over by Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed. The day’s agenda opened with a 30-minute question hour designated for the prime minister. During this time, the prime minister answered starred questions from four MPs and supplementary questions from nine MPs.
The prime minister said: “The current government is committed to restoring stability to the share market (capital market) and rebuilding investor confidence. The government has already taken initiatives to build a developed and sustainable capital market through good governance, transparency, accountability, deepening the market through product diversification, and expanding investment education, among other measures. Honorable Speaker, if you look at yesterday’s or today’s newspapers, you’ll see that the capital market is gradually changing and gradually improving.”
Tarique Rahman outlined the government’s 17-point priority program in parliament. These include: appointing an experienced and skilled chairman and three commissioners to the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) to ensure good governance, transparency and accountability; withdrawing the market’s existing floor price immediately after the new commission takes charge; encouraging profitable state-owned companies to directly list on the stock exchange by offloading shares; creating opportunities for high-capitalization companies, including multinationals, to directly list by offloading shares on the exchange; listing SME companies and other fundamentally sound companies on the capital market; providing necessary protection and incentives for whistleblowers who expose market manipulation and irregularities; formulating policy for auditing listed companies and market intermediaries through qualified auditors; launching a foreign portfolio investment onboarding portal; reforming relevant regulations to international standards; launching a one-stop securities custodian service; reducing capital gains tax; abolishing double taxation on dividend income; digitizing the BO account opening and capital repatriation process; incorporating provisions in securities law for direct case filing at the special capital-market tribunal; forming a “Capital Market Reform Commission” for market reform and a special investigation commission for probing irregularities; using blockchain technology to expand both the market and its products; enabling online and mobile-based BO account opening and trading through e-KYC; and taking initiatives to formulate investment-friendly and reasonable tax policy.
Further measures include: enabling investors to deposit and withdraw funds in BO accounts through banks and mobile financial services; maintaining strong AI-based surveillance to swiftly identify and take punitive action against those involved in market irregularities and fraud; formulating provisions requiring listed issuer companies to deposit a portion of interest income earned on consolidated client accounts into a special investor protection fund to strengthen governance; modernizing laws to better protect investors’ assets; and settling transactions in government securities (treasury bonds, treasury bills and government sukuk) through the stock exchange to bring in ordinary investors.
Outlining the causes of the capital market crash under the previous fascist government, the prime minister said: “Various experts, investor organizations and investigative bodies have at different times worked to uncover the causes of the share market’s continuous decline under the previous Awami League government. Their work found the causes of the continuous decline included market manipulation and artificial inflation and deflation of share prices, irregularities in some companies’ IPOs, bonds and other issues, and long-term weak oversight and delayed action by the regulatory body.”
He added: “A deficit in corporate governance and lack of transparency in financial information, limited participation by institutional investors and a crisis of market confidence, policy inconsistency, investor uncertainty, and a lack of capital-market-friendly tax policy.”
Outlining the government’s steps on this front, the prime minister said: “The government plans to identify those responsible for the share market’s continuous decline that impoverished thousands of investors and take legal action against them. The Anti-Corruption Commission has already conducted an inquiry into the share market scandal allegations, based on which certain individuals have been identified, cases filed, and legal action taken against them.”
He said: “Work is ongoing to determine whether other individuals or institutions were also involved in the share market scandal. The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission has already imposed Tk 1,497 crore in fines as punitive measures against individuals and institutions involved in share market manipulation, irregularities and corruption. Additionally, based on the formation and report of an investigation committee set up to identify those responsible, the matter has been referred to the Anti-Corruption Commission for action.”
“Chattogram capital market will also be strengthened”
Responding to a supplementary question from MP Sarwar Jamal Nizam, the prime minister said: “One of this government’s key goals is to remove inequality wherever it exists in society or in various sectors across the country, wherever people are being deprived — and this applies to the capital market as well. As I said earlier in my main answer, we have assigned responsibility to several experts and appointed them, and we certainly hope they will give us the right advice. Based on that, we hope to transform not just Dhaka but the Chattogram Stock Exchange too into a strong exchange, God willing.”
Separately, responding to a supplementary question from MP Abdul Hannan Masud regarding the embezzlement of insurance company funds, the prime minister said: “You’re certainly aware that the insurance companies’ regulatory body, the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA), has a new chairman appointed. Regarding the allegation you’ve raised, the chairman is already investigating it. All such complaints are being investigated. Once the investigation is complete, we will be able to take action according to the law.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report