A LARGE number of publicly listed companies in recent times have credited cash dividends to its shareholders with beneficiary owner accounts using the Bangladesh Electronic Fund Transfer Network. However, it is seen that when payments are made electronically it becomes extremely difficult for the shareholders to identify the actual source of payment as the bank account statements (linked to the BO accounts) do not provide the necessary details.
It may be noted that the difficulty is arising as most of the publicly listed companies using the BEFTN have stopped providing dividend notices/warrants to its shareholders that would enable the shareholders to understand how much money they have received as dividend, sale proceed of fractional shares, the amount of tax deducted, etc. In such cases, the shareholders have no option but to write to the particular listed companies to ask for clarification of dividend amount, tax deduction certificate, number of bonus shares received, etc. This procedure becomes quite cumbersome if the shareholders have a diversified portfolio.
Furthermore, in the absence of the dividend notices/warrants the shareholders run the risk of paying double tax due to the unavailability of tax deduction certificate from dividend payments received by the shareholders.
In order to address this irregular situation, all the public listed companies using the BEFTN system need to provide all the shareholders (individuals and corporate) with dividend notices/warrants detailing the amount of dividend, tax deduction, etc. Prompt action from the authorities concerned will be highly appreciated.
AZ Chowdhury
Dhaka