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The equity benchmark indices went into a freefall mode as the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a hike in long term capital gains tax.
The finance minister, while presenting the union budget, increased the LTCG on securities from the current 1o% to 12.5%. The short term capital gains was also hiked to 20% from 15% earlier.
In addition, income from buyback of shares will be taxed at the hands of the recipient. The 30-share Sensex fell over 1000 points or 1.35% to trade at 79416, while the broader Nifty was down 1.38% or 337 points at 24,172.