Boost to entrepreneurship, bid to curb speculation a hard balance
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Every year, I look at the budget for two things: what it means for our capital markets, and what it means for our entrepreneurial ecosystem. On these fronts, the budget brings both good and bad news. In a way, the Economic Survey set the stage for some of the changes in the budget. The publication noted what Sebi, RBI and others have been saying about speculative activity in some segments of the financial markets. Sebi has made it clear that it wants to tamp down on some of this speculative mania in the markets. The finance minister made changes in the securities transaction tax (STT) levied on futures and options in that direction. The STT charged on options has been increased from 0.0625% to 0.1% of the option premium. The STT charged on futures has been increased from 0.0125% to 0.02% on the price of futures. This makes trading futures and options costlier now. Although these instruments were originally meant to let institutional inves...