Budget 2017: Budget 2017 spares investors as there is no hike in taxation

Budget 2017 triggered a relief rally on the bourse as investors rejoiced the government’s decision to retain the existing provision on long term capital gains tax exemption on stocks. During the run up to the Budget there was talks that the government was considering increasing the holding period for LTCG for tax exemption from 12 months to 36 months.On another front, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reduced the time period required to qualify for the long term capital gains on property from 36 months to 24 months.The Finance Minister has also announced the abolition of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). This is seen as a big positive in the form of reduced bureaucracy. This is certainly a sentiment booster. The budget’s focus on infrastructure spending and limited populism also worked as big positive for the investors. The Finance Minister though did not cut tax rates for the large corporate entities as promised earlier, the decision to stick to fiscal prudence has worked in favour of investors. The fiscal target for FY17-18 is kept at 3.2% as compared to 3.5% earlier. In FY18-19, the fiscal target is kept at 3%.A clear focus on FRBM framework and low interest rates should further bolster the corporate profitability and the reward investors in return. The old demands such as reduction or removal of STT and CTT however did not materialise. There was also expectation that Finance Minister will raise the investment limit under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act. However, this too remained unchanged.