Bangladesh has a liberal industrial policy in order to attract foreign investments either from foreign investors or Non-Resident Bangladeshis (NRBs). There are no limitations on equity participations i.e. 100 percent foreign private investment is permitted. For obtaining industries facilities like procurement of land, electricity, gas, sewerage, telecommunication & internet connection, importation of capital machinery and raw materials tax rebate, duty drawback facilities etc., Foreign Investors are advised to be registered with the Board of Investment (BOI), Government of Bangladesh. For details please visit BOI website at: www.boi.gov.bd.

Facilities available to Foreign Investors and NRBs

• No ceiling on equity holding
• No restriction on repatriation of invested capital, profit & dividend
• No tax on capital gain on transaction of listed shares
• 10% tax rebate is allowed to an assesses on his/her investment in listed securities. The allowed amount for investment allowance is equivalent to 25% of total income or Tk. 500,000 whichever is lower
• Lower rate of tax i.e. 10% on dividend income deducted at source
• 10% reserved quota for NRBs in IPO (Initial Public Offering) shares
• Participation in the secondary market through Non-resident Investors Taka Account (NITA) and full repatriation of sale proceeds, capital gain & dividend income etc

How can an expatriate open and operate NITA (Non-Resident Investor's Taka Account)?

The central bank of Bangladesh offers the NITA (Non-investor's Taka Account) to facilitate the expatriates only to invest their money in Bangladesh securities market. It is a great opportunity for the expatriates to enter into Bangladesh capital market without any difficulty. The salient features of opening and operating NITA are as follows:

• Collecting NITA opening form and relevant documents from any Authorized Dealer Branch of scheduled banks in Bangladesh. These forms and documents may also be available at Bangladesh Embassies.
• Opening NITA with that branch of the bank. NITA can be operated by a nominated person in Bangladesh. NITA holder can also give mandate to the bank's branch to operate the account.
• Legal tender money (BDT) will only be used to invest in Bangladeshi securities through Bangladesh Capital Market.
• Dividend Income on invested securities and sale proceeds of securities can be deposited with NITA. All the incomes at NITA including Dividend and Capita Gain are free of tax.
• Entire balance with NITA can be freely remitted to the expatriate at current exchange rate.

How can an expatriate invest through Bangladesh Capital Market?

An expatriate can invest through Bangladesh Capital Market by observing the following processes:

• Opening a Beneficiary Owner's (BO) Account with any of the registered Depository Participants (DP) for holding dematerialized securities as a custodian. If the bank, where NITA opened, is the registered DP then it is convenient for the NITA holder to open and operate his BO account with the same bank.
• Assigning Power of Attorney (POA) to a nominated person or the bank, where NITA opened, to operate the BO account conveniently.
• Opening a Customer Account with any of the registered stock broker for trading of securities.
• Assigning Power of Attorney (POA) to a nominated person or the bank assigned for operating BO account, to operate the Customer Account with the stock broker as per the instructions given by the account holder from time to time conveniently.
• If the Customer Account Holder wants to execute buy/sell of securities by himself, he can freely execute it through Internet Trading System (ITS) of CSE by opening an ITS Account with any of the registered stock broker of CSE. In this case the customer doesn't require submitting written buy/sell order to his broker. The broker will provide User ID and Passward to its customer for login to the ITS to trade. The customer will be controlled by his broker through setting limit of money and scrips.