Securities Transaction Tax (STT) is all set to become an effective tool for generating intelligence about income made from market operations. The Central Board of Direct Tax is examining ways of using the STT data on the lines of annual information return (AIR) to nab tax evaders.
The board had, earlier this year, set up an internal committee to examine how STT data could be used to generate intelligence on tax evaders. The committee has submitted its recommendations which are being examined now, sources told ET.
The income tax department already gets information on seven financial transactions under the AIR system. The transactions covered include purchase or sale of property over Rs 30 lakh, credit card spend of over Rs 2 lakh in a year, investments of over Rs 2 lakh in mutual funds, Rs 5 lakh in debenture/bonds, RBI bonds or bonds by company, Rs 1 lakh in shares, cash deposit of Rs 10 lakh in savings account.
The data will be very effective since it carries details of permanent account number, sources said. Market regulator Sebi has made it mandatory for all demat account holders to have a PAN. In fact, the government made PAN mandatory for all security market transactions in the last budget.
The data contained in STT returns is quite useful for verification of the genuineness of the transactions carried by investor or trader with PAN serving as a link. With the boom in stock market attracting many more, the income tax department feels that STT data could turn out to be an effective intelligence tool to track tax evaders.
Finance minister P Chidambaram had introduced STT in the Union Budget 2004. All investors in the stock market pay a fixed securities transaction tax of 0.125% for every transaction in cash for delivery of shares. However, transactions in derivatives trading attract lesser STT of around 0.017%. STT collections registered a growth of 57.61 % to Rs 3,783 crore in April-October 2007. |
