Dhaka: A new report revealed that Bangladesh has some 18 tax treaties that dramatically restrict the government’s power to impose tax on global companies doing business in Bangladesh.

Those treaties unfairly limit the country’s potential to collect tax revenue, said the study titled, ‘Mistreated’ carried out by ActionAid, an international NGO, said a press release on Wednesday.

The report also found that the poorer countries around the world are losing billions of dollars in revenue collection due to those restrictive treaties.

Bangladesh is the country where 66 million people live in extreme poverty (less than US$ 1.90 a day). But the country has given up the most power to tax multinational companies and it has the largest number of very restrictive treaties.

A single clause in Bangladesh’s tax treaties is costing it around $ 85 million every year, the report says. The clause restricts Bangladesh’s ability to tax dividends, money paid by companies to overseas shareholders.

The ‘Mistreated’ report is based on ground breaking research that has for the first time examined more than 500 international tax treaties, revealing which ones most take away poorer countries’ ability to raise taxes on multinational companies.