SEC becomes financially self-reliant for first time

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has become financially self-dependent for the first time, thanks to fee imposed on beneficiary owners (BO) account.
During the first six months [July-December] of the current fiscal year, the stock market regulator has already generated Tk 7 crore in income that is Tk 1.5 crore higher than the budget allocation from the government for the fiscal year 2007-08.
The total budget allocation for this fiscal has been fixed at Tk 5.5 crore by the government.
“Since our journey in 1993, we have a vision of becoming financially self-reliant and now we achieve the target,” said Farhad Ahmed, executive director of SEC.
“We do not want to be a burden on the government exchequer,” he said.
The commission is already using its revenue for its yearly expenditure and taking only the required amount from the government, he said.
Of the Tk 7 crore income, Tk 5 crore was received from BO account fee, which was imposed by the SEC in August last year. The SEC introduce the annual maintenance fee of Tk 300 on each BO account in a bid to stop fake or shadow BO accounts by using other person's information.
Of the Tk 300, the SEC gets Tk 50,while a depository participant get Tk 100 and Central Depository Bangladesh Ltd Tk 150.
BO account is like a bank account, where customer will deposit their scripless securities. While bank account contains money, BO account contains securities, or shares.
The rest Tk 2 crore was received from other income generating sources including initial public offering (IPO) consent fees, registration fees and penalties.
The increased revenue indicates that the SEC does not need to depend on government's budgetary allocation.
In 2004-05, the total expenditure was Tk 3.16 crore of which 56.18 percent was used from the commission's revenue, he said, adding that in 2005-06, of the total expenditure of Tk 4 crore, Tk 3.17 crore, or 78.27 percent, was used from the SEC's revenue.
In 2006-07, the commission's total expenditure was Tk 4.17 crore and of the amount Tk 3.36 crore was used from its revenue fund, he said.