Govt has no proposal to lower STT

The government has no proposal to lower the securities transaction tax (STT) for capital market transactions, S.S. Palanimanickam, Minister of State for Finance, told lawmakers.

Traders have been lobbying for reducing the securities transaction tax, arguing that the move will help revive the lacklustre stock markets.

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The tax rate, related to transactions on different types of securities, varies from 0.017 percent to 0.25 percent, depending upon the type of security traded and transaction - whether sale or purchase.

The minister, in a written reply to the upper house of the parliament, said the securities transaction tax receipts had declined by around 18 percent to 29.6 billion rupees during the first six months in the current fiscal year from a year ago period.

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In a separate reply, the minister said the government was still hopeful of meeting the target of 400 billion rupees through stake-sale in state-run firms during the current fiscal year.