National Board of Revenue (NBR) chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said on Tuesday the taxpayers' identification number (TIN) will not be made mandatory for stock market investors to open beneficiary owner (BO) accounts.
He said this at a pre-budget meeting held at the NBR headquarters against a backdrop of the confusion arisen after publication of a news story that stated, "NBR would make TIN obligatory to open BO accounts."
"Few days ago at a meeting with the authorities of two stock exchanges and insurers, I wanted to know from the people concerned whether TIN is needed to open BO accounts," he added.
But a newspaper ran a report stating that NBR would make TIN obligatory to open BO accounts, he mentioned.
Mr Bhuiyan said after that he came to know the remark in the report acted as one of the causes behind a significant fall in the indices of share market.
He added: "Now I want to declare it through the media that if TIN is not required to open BO accounts under the existing system, the government will not impose it afresh in the near future."
"Now let's see whether the share market gets bullish after publicising the declaration," the NBR chairman said at the meeting with realtors, steelmakers and construction material suppliers etc.
