A lot of brainstorming is going on in the circles concerned to find ways and means to revitalise the share market. Indeed, it has proved to be a difficult task. No formula is working!

May be we are all missing a point that in our kind of economic environment people and organisations with investable surplus would come to the share market only when they find that potential returns from their investments in the share market would be better than that of government securities which yields assured returns. Because of recent increase in the interest rates in some government securities (by as much as 15 per cent) those have become very attractive to the investors both big and small. These attractive government securities are soaking up all the investable surpluses and thus the share market is suffering from lack of funds.

If follows from the above that in order to boost the share market either interest rates of government securities have to be reduced (as was done by Mr

Salfur Rahman and that action alone may have been responsible for the onset of the bullish trend during his time) or the profitability of the listed companies have to be increased. It may not be possible for the government to reduce interest rates now because government is. perhaps, meeting it needs with the recently floated securities which have enabled it to take reduced Ioans from commercial banks. Therefore, only other option is to increase the profitability of the listed companies so that it is possible for the companies to give better dividend and value appreciation. Can the government do anything to increase profits of the listed companies? yes. of course, government could seriously consider taking the following steps which in the long run may prove to be beneficial to both capital market and the small investors who may have lost their life's savings In the recent past.

a. In order to put the local

manufacturers on a level playing field, import duties on the items which are also produced locally may be increased to a competitive level. For example, a bag of locally produced cement costs about Tk 250/=. whereas a bag of imported cement costs only Tk 210/=. No wonder, local cement factories are not being able to use their full production capacity.

b. Corporate tax of the listed companies may be reduced by another 2.5 per cent for a few years.

c. Transparency may be ensured in the management and book keeping of the listed companies.

These companies may be strictly made 'to follow the existing rules/regulations regarding AGMs. six monthly balance sheets, profit and loss accounts etc.

d. DSE may be pressurized to expedite introduction of screen based trading with CDS to eliminate manipulation in trading.

Hopefully the suggestions will merit due consideration from'the authorities concerned.