The stock market regulator at a meeting recently has asked the depository participants to realise the annual charge from the BO account holders from September 1 to 30.

The SEC will cancel or freeze BO account from October if the account holders fail to pay annual maintenance fee against each account by the deadline.

If the account holders do not pay the fee by the deadline, the accounts without any share will be closed automatically, while the accounts will be frozen if there is share in the accounts, SEC officials said.

The Central Depository Bangladesh Ltd (CDBL) will publish an advertisement in the newspapers very soon to inform the BO account holders about the timeframe of paying the annual fee.

Earlier, the SEC issued a gazette notification regarding annual maintenance fee for BO accounts. The SEC decided to introduce the annual maintenance fee in a bid to stop opening of fake BO accounts or shady BO accounts by using other person's information.

As per the new rules, of the annual fee of Tk 300, a depository participant will get Tk 100, the CDBL will receive Tk 150 and the SEC will get Tk 50.

Previously, the BO account holders had to pay a custody fee annually to the CDBL, if there were shares in the accounts. The custody fee was calculated on the basis of existing shares in a BO account and an account holder had to pay 0.05 percent of the current market value of the shares.

According to sources, around 14 lakh BO accounts have so far been opened and most of the accounts are used only to participate in the IPOs (initial public offerings).

A group of so-called investors participate in the IPOs with many BO accounts, which ultimately cut the real investors' competitiveness, said a SEC high official.

Imposition of the annual maintenance fee will discourage the opening of BO accounts by using other persons' information, the official said.