FE Report (July 05, 2011)
Depository Participants (DPs) have demanded for time extension to collect annual fees as many BO (beneficiary owner's) account holders failed to pay the fee in time for last fiscal, officials said.
Their urge comes after a significant amount of clients have failed to pay account fees for previous fiscal year ended June 30 last.
"The securities regulator should extend the timeframe in an effort to increase revenue earnings and alive the regular accounts as well," a DP told the FE.
By this time, DPs deletes more than 0.45 million accounts for not paying fees and on Monday the number of active BO accounts declined to more than 2.9 million from previous 3.4 million accounts.
As per existing rules, an account holder needs to pay fee of five hundred taka for maintenance purpose in a single year.
Md. Azam Khan, chief executive officer (CEO) of Anwar Securities, said they have deleted more than four thousand BO accounts of their clients who left neither money nor shares in their accounts.
"Many of our regular clients are yet to pay annual fees for their accounts, despite the previous fiscal year closed on June 30," Mr. Khan told the FE.
He said a problem has surfaced in deleting BO accounts as the closing date of paying BO account fees and previous fiscal year ended on same day---June 30 last.
"That's why we are not able to able delete such accounts whose owners will submit fees within first week of new fiscal year. That's why the securities regulator should give us at least one week to collect remaining fees from regular clients," Mr. Khan added.
Roni Ahmed, another high official of Modern Securities, said their company has deleted about eight thousand BO accounts for not paying account fees within deadline ended on June 30 last.
"However, many of our clients have paid account fees in last two working and many more account holders are likely to pay fees within one week. That's why we are not in the position of deleting such accounts whose fees will be paid by this time," Mr. Ahmed told the FE.
He also said the DPs need at least one week more for collecting account fees in line with rules and regulations.
"That's why the regulator should extend timeframe by at least one week for collecting account fees from regular clients," he added.
When asked, a high official of Central Depository Bangladesh Limited (CDBL) said on the condition of anonymity that it was not possible to say specifically how many BO accounts would be deleted for not paying fees for last fiscal year.
"Many DPs will send account fees collected within at least one week of new fiscal year to CDBL. After the completion of receiving account fees for last fiscal, we will be able to reveal the actual number of active BO accounts in the country's stock market," the official told the FE.
However, no high official of securities regulator---Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)---could be reached for comments.
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