Often, divestments by foreign owners of Bangladeshi companies are effected through a sale of the stake outside Bangladesh. More specifically, where foreign companies hold shares in Bangladeshi companies through intermediate offshore investment companies, they can effect a divestment by merely selling off shares of the offshore holding companies. This does not in any way result in a transfer of shares of the Bangladeshi company giving rise to taxation of capital gains in Bangladesh. But, the question still remains as to whether such indirect sales that achieve the same end result should also be taxed in Bangladesh. This issue is discussed in a column by Mukesh Butani in The Business Standard.