Revenue from public sector bodies drops drastically
Saturday, 26 June 2010
S M Jahangir
The amount of dividend and profit, received by the government from state-run entities and other concerned companies, continues to decline sharply in recent years, undermining the efforts to boost internal resources.
The state-owned enterprises (SoEs), banks and financial institutions and other multinational companies where the government has equity or stake are considered to the major sources of non-tax revenues.
The amount of such profit and dividend, according to official sources, has already been reduced to half in the last couple of years.
Citing official figures, an official said the government is expected to receive around Tk 16 billion as profit and dividend in the outgoing fiscal year (FY) 2009-10 compared to Tk 30.93 billion in FY 2008-09.
A drastic fall in the payment of dividend/profit by the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has been attributed to the poor availability of the non-tax revenue, a finance ministry official told the FE.
The BB is expected to pay Tk 6.0 billion only as dividend for the FY 2009-10 while the amount was about Tk 18 billion in the previous fiscal, the official said, without elaborating the reason.
Taking the prevailing poor response from some major players into account, the government has significantly slashed the target for dividend and profit amount to Tk 14.42 billion for FY 2010-11 against the revised target of Tk 25.45 billon in FY 2009-10, official figures showed.
The government targeted to earn Tk 36.81 billion on account of profit and dividend in its original budget for FY 2009-10.
Besides, the government's earning from dividend and profit also fell short of targets in the past few years. Against the backdrop, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has taken steps to reverse the trend, said an official.
"A sharp fall in the availability of profit and dividend from the SoEs and other agencies concerned has necessitated the authorities to review the situation," a senior finance ministry official said.
Under the initiative, the Ministry is now assessing the government equities in the state-owned enterprises (SoEs), aiming to streamline its overall asset and debt recovery systems, official sources said.
"An assessment on the government's overall equities in the state-owned entities and other entities is now at the final stage. After doing so, the authorities will take next course of action," said the official.
The key purpose of the assessment is to create a database on the government overall equity position in different entities and also to streamline both the realisation of its dividend/profit from them.
Another important purpose of the initiative is to improve the operational efficiency of the SoEs, he mentioned.
The amount of dividend and profit, received by the government from state-run entities and other concerned companies, continues to decline sharply in recent years, undermining the efforts to boost internal resources.
The state-owned enterprises (SoEs), banks and financial institutions and other multinational companies where the government has equity or stake are considered to the major sources of non-tax revenues.
The amount of such profit and dividend, according to official sources, has already been reduced to half in the last couple of years.
Citing official figures, an official said the government is expected to receive around Tk 16 billion as profit and dividend in the outgoing fiscal year (FY) 2009-10 compared to Tk 30.93 billion in FY 2008-09.
A drastic fall in the payment of dividend/profit by the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has been attributed to the poor availability of the non-tax revenue, a finance ministry official told the FE.
The BB is expected to pay Tk 6.0 billion only as dividend for the FY 2009-10 while the amount was about Tk 18 billion in the previous fiscal, the official said, without elaborating the reason.
Taking the prevailing poor response from some major players into account, the government has significantly slashed the target for dividend and profit amount to Tk 14.42 billion for FY 2010-11 against the revised target of Tk 25.45 billon in FY 2009-10, official figures showed.
The government targeted to earn Tk 36.81 billion on account of profit and dividend in its original budget for FY 2009-10.
Besides, the government's earning from dividend and profit also fell short of targets in the past few years. Against the backdrop, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has taken steps to reverse the trend, said an official.
"A sharp fall in the availability of profit and dividend from the SoEs and other agencies concerned has necessitated the authorities to review the situation," a senior finance ministry official said.
Under the initiative, the Ministry is now assessing the government equities in the state-owned enterprises (SoEs), aiming to streamline its overall asset and debt recovery systems, official sources said.
"An assessment on the government's overall equities in the state-owned entities and other entities is now at the final stage. After doing so, the authorities will take next course of action," said the official.
The key purpose of the assessment is to create a database on the government overall equity position in different entities and also to streamline both the realisation of its dividend/profit from them.
Another important purpose of the initiative is to improve the operational efficiency of the SoEs, he mentioned.