The finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the Union Budget 2023 provided Income Tax Relief to Market Linked Debentures.
The proposed amendment brought out by the Union Budget will take effect from the 1st day of April 2024 and shall apply to the assessment year 2024-25 and subsequent assessment years.
As per the Finance Bill, a special provision for taxation of capital gains has been introduced in case of Market Linked Debentures. ‘Market Linked Debentures’ are listed securities. They are currently being taxed as long-term capital gain at the rate of 10 per cent without indexation.
However, the securities are in the nature of derivatives which are normally taxed at applicable rates, the amendment said and they give variable interests as they are linked with the performance of the market.
In order to tax capital gains arising from transfer or re emption or maturity of these securities as short-term capital gains at the applicable rates, the Union Budget proposed to insert a new section 50AA in the Act to treat the full value of the consideration received or accruing as a result of the transfer or redemption or maturity of the “Market Linked Debentures” as reduced by the cost of acquisition of the debenture and the expenditure incurred wholly or exclusively in connection with transfer or redemption of such debenture, as capital gains arising from the transfer of a short term capital asset.
The present Union Budget also proposed to define the ‘Market linked Debenture’ as a security by whatever name called, which has an underlying principal component in the form of debt security and where the returns are linked to market returns on other underlying securities or indices, including any securities classified or regulated as a Market Linked Debenture by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
According to the Union Budget “It has been noticed that a variety of hybrid securities that combine features of plain vanilla debt securities and exchange-traded derivatives are being issued through private placements and listed on stock exchanges. It is seen that such securities differ from plain vanilla debt securities”.
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