Errant listed cos to be driven out of market

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FE Report
The steps taken by the government to make the stock market vibrant will drive away 83 listed companies, identified as errant, from the turf, said finance minister AMA Muhith in parliament on Tuesday.
"Errant companies are cheating the investors by not holding annual general meetings, or paying dividends to shareholders and caring less about rules and regulations," he said in reply to lawmaker Abdur Rahman.
The government initiatives will compel the bad companies to go away from the market, or to improve themselves, he said.
Referring to some listed companies identified as cheating the investors, the minister admitted that the government was helpless as there was no legal framework to bring them to book.
"Sometime we try to control them but there is no legal framework to penalise them," he said.
The stock market of the country is shallow as capital raising is very limited but in recent times some government initiatives have brought back life to the market, he claimed.
Post and telecommunications minister Raziuddin Ahmed Raju replying to a question in parliament said, the government has plans to offload 25 per cent stake of state-owned mobile phone company Teletalk but the framework for the process was yet to be decided.
Mr Muhith informed the parliament that the government had earned Tk 262.92 billion revenue in the first six months of the current fiscal.
Tk 104.94 billion from import, Tk 95.56 billion from local taxes, Tk 60.4 billion and Tk 2.01 billion from other taxes, he added.
A number of steps have been taken to increase the revenue collection, including strengthening and digitising the National Board of Revenue, he said.
"A 5 per cent regulatory duty is imposed on import of finished products and it is expected that Tk 6.43 billion will be collected from the duty," Mr Muhith said.
In reply to a question from lawmaker Shamsur Rahman Sharif, Mr Muhith said the government has taken steps to reduce the lending rate.
Commercial banks fix interest rests independently, but to face the challenges of the global recession, 7 per cent interest rate for export sector and 13 per cent for productive sector have been fixed, he said.
Mr Muhith replying to a question from Mohammad Shafiqul Islam, MP, said microfinance institutions have been instructed to limit the lending rate to 30 per cent.
The MFIs charge higher interest rates as they have higher operating cost but Microcredit Regulatory Authority will recommend rationalisation of the rate, he added.
The country has 31 ongoing World Bank projects and till December $600 million has been spent on the projects, Mr Muhith said in reply to a question from lawmaker Mohammad Shahiduzzaman Sarker.