Demonetisation: No plans to impose long-term capital gains tax, says Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: The government has no plans to impose long-term capital gains tax on share transactions in the upcoming budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley clarified on Sunday, describing media reports of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech earlier as erroneous. "The speech has been misinterpreted in some sections of the media which have started speculating that this is an indirect reference to the fact that there could be long-term capital gains (tax) on securities transactions," Jaitley said at an event here. "Now, this interpretation is absolutely erroneous, the Prime Minister has made no such statement directly or indirectly. I was present at the function in which this speech was given," he said. "I wish to absolutely clarify that there is no occasion or opportunity to anybody to reach such a conclusion because this is not what the Prime Minister said nor is it the intention of the government as has been reported in some section of the media," he added. In his address on Saturday at the inauguration of the National Institute of Securities Markets campus in Mumbai, Modi had said: "The low contribution of taxes may be due to the structure of our tax laws. Low or zero tax rate is given to certain types of financial income." "Those who profit from the financial markets must make a fair contribution to nation-building through taxes. For various reasons, the contribution of tax from those who make money on the markets has been low," the Prime Minister said without naming any specific tax. Under current norms, if a stock traded on an exchange is held for more than a year, gains from it are exempt from capital gains tax.