No change in LTCG in medium term: Revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra
New Delhi, July 31, 2024
Synopsis
Revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra said the government had studied 1.05 million returns for 2023-24 that showed capital gains from land and building. The effective LTCG tax rate on these was 11.54% on real estate in 2022-23, he said. The budget announced removal of indexation benefits for LTCG on properties but slashed the tax rate to 12.5% from 20%, fuelling concerns over an increase in tax burden.
Revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra on Tuesday ruled out any review of the long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax regime in the medium term.
"For the medium term, the LTCG tax rates will likely remain stable at current levels," Malhotra said at a post-budget session at the PHD House of Commerce and Industry.
He said the government had studied 1.05 million returns for 2023-24 that showed capital gains from land and building. The effective LTCG tax rate on these was 11.54% on real estate in 2022-23, he said. The budget announced removal of indexation benefits for LTCG on properties but slashed the tax rate to 12.5% from 20%, fuelling concerns over an increase in tax burden.
The budget raised the tax rate by 2.5 percentage points for listed equity to 12.5 %.
"It's a very small tax increase in LTCG on real estate," Malhotra said, adding that the measure was aimed at simplifying the capital gains regime.
He said similar apprehensions were expressed when the Centre introduced the new tax regime. "About 6 crore (ITRs) filed for last year and 70% is under the new income tax regime. The whole move has been towards simplicity, with the ultimate purpose to reduce the compliance burden," Malhotra said.
The Centre has collected Rs 2.78 lakh crore from LTCG alone in the last five years, it informed the parliament, adding that there is no proposal to roll back or abolish the long term capital gain tax. In the assessment year (AY) 2023-24, the centre collected Rs 98,682 crore from LTCG, Minister of State Pankaj Chaudhary told Rajya Sabha in a written reply. For 2022-23 AY, it had collected Rs 86,075 crore.
[The Economic Times]
