B Mirror Desk: The Chief Advisor has received 15 demands from investors for the capital market’s long-term growth, stability, and fortification. On Monday, May 12, the National Unity Foundation (CAPMINAF), a capital market investor, presented a written demand to save the stock market.

The 15 demands of investors:

01. To restore the confidence of capital market investors, a special allocation of at least Tk 50,000 crore (fifty thousand crores) should be made in the upcoming budget for the stability and development of the capital market to overcome the liquidity crisis in the market.

02. The capital market is an important part of the country’s economy. Therefore, measures should be taken to keep the interest rates of banks below 10% to restore the confidence of investors in the capital market.

03. BSEC, DSE, CSE, ICB, CDBL and CMSF funds should be restructured to permanently restore the confidence of investors. In particular, the current chairman of BSEC should be removed quickly and a qualified and experienced person with capital market experience should be appointed.

04. In order to quickly overcome the current liquidity crisis in the capital market, special incentives should be taken to attract domestic and foreign investors to invest.

05. Salman F. Rahman, the advisor to the former fascist government who looted the stock market and banks, and his special associate Hasan Taher Imam, who looted the stock market and mutual funds, should be given exemplary punishment very quickly.

06. In order to ensure rapid liquidity in the market, effective measures should be taken to ensure that the company’s entrepreneur directors hold 2% individually and 30% collectively as per Section 2CC of BSEC.

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07. The transparent report on the investment in the capital market of the 3,000 (three thousand crore) crore taka given by the government to ICB for the development of the capital market should be made public soon.

08. Mutual funds are the lifeblood of the capital market. Mutual funds continue to provide all support during the crisis in the capital markets of other developed countries of the world. Therefore, the overall support of mutual funds is very important in our country during the current crisis in the market. Therefore, BSEC, as a regulatory body, must take very transparent and effective steps for the development of mutual funds.

09. It is very important to bring the issue managers, auditors and company directors under the law as full responsibility for changing the category of companies listed in the capital market. Because, since the company’s share price is falling, the affected investors should not be punished (harmed) in this way.

10. Quarterly financial reports of listed companies in the capital market should be made very transparent and free from manipulation and measures should be taken to encourage companies to pay standard dividends.

11. In the upcoming budget, the tax-free income limit of individual investors should be increased to at least 7 (seven) lakh taka. And there are margin loan accounts worth about 25 (twenty-five) thousand crore taka in the capital market. In order to activate these, 100% interest should be waived unconditionally.

12. In order to restore investors’ confidence in the market, a good system should be taken to impose a tax rate of 5% on capital gains earned in excess of 50 (fifty) lakh taka in the tax year instead of 15%.

13. For the development of the capital market, good and fundamentally sound companies should be brought to the market. Under no circumstances should weak and indebted companies be allowed to be listed and the buy-back law should be implemented quickly in order to gain widespread investor confidence.

14. In order to gain permanent confidence of investors, the Investors Welfare Protection Fund should be formed quickly. At the same time, arrangements should be made to organize the annual AGMs in person.

15. In order to ensure permanent stability in the capital market, an acceptable coordination meeting should be arranged in the first week of every month by the Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh Bank, BSEC, DSE, CSE, ICB, representatives of registered investor organizations, ABB, BAB, BMBA, DBA, CDBL, CCBL, BAPLC and CMSF.

In this regard, Ruhul Amin Akand, President of the National Unity Foundation, a capital market investor, said, “We have become helpless in the long recession. At this moment, there is no alternative to increasing the flow of money into the market. The government has directly intervened in such recessions in neighboring countries and has stabilized the market. We have demanded that our new government also take such initiatives.”