STT: What began in lieu of capital gains tax relief survives on flimsy grounds—time to axe it?

The tax was a tracker rather than a revenue source. But not only has capital gains tax come right back since then, STT has turned into a coffer filler and market intervention tool. That’s not what it was meant to be. Why not get rid of it?

Capital gains tax was litigation-prone, contested between business income and investment gain. A transaction tax settled the matter at the moment of trade. The levy was never meant to be a revenue so…

Originally published by Livemint. Read the full article →