Govt mulling a cut in Securities Transaction Tax

27 Sep 2011 Evaluate

In order to lift the market sentiments, government is considering a cut in the Securities Transaction Tax (STT), along with this, the Ministry of Finance is also mulling a rationalized and uniform stamp duty on securities transactions. This move of the government has been welcomed by the market, which has been under pressure because of the global uncertainties. However, the recommendation is still under consideration. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark index Sensex recovered around 250 points from the day lowest and closed to 16,051.10, although, Sensex was below 110.96 points compare to last Friday. 

A senior finance ministry official said, ‘we are seriously looking into the proposal (reducing STT). This can be done outside the Budget.’ The decision of cutting the STT is backed by the rationale that the tax has not generated much revenue. In first five months of current financial year, the government generated around Rs 2,223 crore from STT, which is almost 10% less than the last financial year.

The STT was introduced in 2004-05, when P Chidambaram was Finance Minister, the STT is charged on sales/purchase of share, equity-oriented mutual funds and futures and options in securities. The recommendation of cutting or removing the STT came up in the meeting between the finance ministry and Stock Exchanges. It was said that this tax constituted a major component of the transaction cost. Due to the high cost and to make trading more attractive, there was need to reduce or remove the tax, the exchanges are believed to have said in the meeting.

In the same time, the ministry of finance is making the draft to present a proposal before cabinet for rationalizing stamp duty. This also involves removing the rates in some states. Finance Ministry official said, ‘two departments of the Ministry, Economic Affairs (responsible for development of capital market) and Revenue (responsible for taxation) have finalized various provisions. Now, Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, will take a final call and then the proposal will be taken to the Cabinet.’

As stamp duty is the state matter, the discussions are also going on with the states. The stamp duties vary from state to state, the effort is to define a uniform rate and persuade the states to fix it accordingly. Maharashtra has the highest stamp duty collection with 42% of total inflows. It charges at the rate of 0.002% on the non-delivery-based and 0.01% on delivery-based. 

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