The government s revenue earnings from the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) tumbled 35 per cent year-on-year in the first eight months of current fiscal year 2022-23 owing to sluggish trading activities.Poor trading activities coupled with low share sales by sponsor-directors has impacted the tax collection as earnings are related to turnover, said a DSE official.The government received taxes totalling Tk 1.97 billion in July-February period of the FY 23 from the prime bourse as against Tk 3.04 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year, according to the DSE data.Month-on month, the tax revenue also fell 19 per cent in February to Tk 138 million although January saw a slight increase, the DSE data show.In January, the benchmark equities index rose 61 points and the daily turnover jumped 40 per cent month-on-month to Tk 5.10 billion, but the momentum could not sustain due to confidence crisis among investors, said the DSE official.The market continues to flounder in the past eight months and low share sales by sponsor-directors made things worse, dragging daily average turnover down 40 per cent to Tk 7.45 billion.And the benchmark index of the DSE plunged 160 points or 2.50 per cent over the eight months through February of FY 23.As the tax revenue is related to the market turnover, the lower turnover has led to the decline in the government s revenue earnings, said a stockbroker.Floor prices restricting the big-cap stocks movements and investors lack of confidence played a major role behind the low turnover during the period, he pointed out.The market movement was mostly on a handful of stocks as most other securities remained stuck at floor prices without potential buyers since those were deemed overvalued even at that level.Large-cap firms, such as British American Tobacco, Grameenphone, Renata, United Power and Singer Bangladesh, which had dominated the turnover chart earlier, have remained unmoved on the bourses.The government earned the revenue from TREC (trading right entitlement certificate) holders at a rate of 0.05 per cent in commission and from sponsor-directors and placement holders at a rate of 5 per cent on share sales.Of the total tax revenue in July-February of FY23, around Tk 1400 million came from TREC holders in commission, popularly known as brokerage commission, and Tk 569 million from share sales by sponsor-directors and placement holders.In the previous fiscal year, the government had earned Tk 3.60 billion, the highest in 11 years.