New Delhi: In a major decision, the government on Friday announced withdrawal of the enhanced surcharge levied on long and short capital gains. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today came out with specific measures to boost economic growth and outlined the road ahead for the economy.

"The enhanced surcharge levied by Finance Act, 2019 on long and short term capital gains tax is being withdrawn," Sitharaman said at a media briefing here.

This comes after representatives from the capital markets and foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) met Sitharaman and other senior officials of the ministry to discuss various issues affecting the sector earlier this month.



"The pre-Budget position is restored. It is being done to encourage investment in the capital market, the finance minister said.

The decision taken to levy enhanced surcharge in the Budget 2019 had unnerved the stock markets. With it the surcharge on income tax was raised to 39 per cent from 35.88% for those with taxable income between Rs 2 crore and Rs 5 crore, and 42.47 per cent for those with an income over Rs 5 crore.

She said that India's growth is still comparatively high to everybody else in a volatile global economy.