Bangladesh plans to make divorce costlier

Bangladeshis will need to spend more than they are now to get a divorce as the cost of the divorce instrument will increase after proposed changes in the stamp duty.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal proposed changes in the Stamp Act in the FY2022-23 budget that he presented on Thursday.

According to the proposal, the price of the divorce stamp will be increased from the previous Tk 500 to Tk 2,000.

Dhaka South City Corporation data shows that 7,245 divorce applications were filed in the area in 2021 which is 14 percent higher than the previous year.

On the other hand, in Dhaka North City, 6,168 divorce applications were filed in 2020, while 4,674 couples were divorced in 2021.

In 2020, out of a total of 12,513 divorce applications filed in Dhaka, 8,481 were filed by women. Men sought the remaining 4,032 separations.

In 2020, 384 couples from Dhaka North City filed divorce applications, but resolved the dispute through negotiations, officials said.

Lack of maintenance, torture for dowry, suspicious husbands, relationship with other women, drug addiction, impotence, and personality conflict are some of the reasons cited for seeking separation on behalf of wives,

On the other hand, husbands stated the wife's bad temper, indifference towards the family, infertility, disobedience, and not practising the religion as the reasons.