The National Board of Revenue has asked the Dhaka Stock Exchange to freeze shares held by the directors of Bangladesh Welding Electrodes Limited for non-payment of Tk 18.46 crore in income tax.

Despite issuing notices several times, BD Welding did not submit tax returns for the financial years of 2018, 2019 and 2020, the revenue board said.

The deputy commissioner of taxes sent a letter in this regard to the DSE on August 6.

In the letter, the DSE has been asked to freeze shares held by the company, joint or related persons, and also stop activities related with withdrawal of share trading proceeds until further instruction, DSE officials said.

The NBR also asked the bourse to pay the revenue board Tk 18.46 crore from the accounts of sponsor-directors and related persons of BD Welding.

If the claimed amount is not available with the accounts of sponsor-directors and related people, the DSE would immediately ‘stop payment’ of their accounts, it said.

On August 10, BD Welding recommended ‘no dividend’ for the year ended on June 30, 2018 and recommended 1 per cent stock dividend for the year ended on June 30, 2019.

The company also reported loss per share of Tk 0.08 for the year ended on December 31, 2019 as against loss of Tk 0.36 per share in the previous year.

The company has been struggling with cash flow for years.

Alif group, a local private sector investor group, showed interest in coming to the board of BD Welding by buying the company’s 25 per cent share at an agreed rate from state-owned Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB), according to a DSE web post on July 29 last year. The issue is under the BSEC consideration.