Sebi welcomes budget announcement on dividend distribution tax

Mumbai: Capital markets regulator Sebi chief Ajay Tyagi on Tuesday welcomed the Budget announcement of putting the onus of paying dividend distribution tax (DDT) on the investor rather than the company.

He also said the watchdog has sought replies from fund houses like Franklin Templeton who have marked down their investment for debt holdings of telecom company Vodafone Idea following the broader issues in the sector. Abolition of DDT for companies "was something which the market was asking. If you can collect actual tax from the investor as per business income, that should be the tax. That is logical," Tyagi told reporters on the sidelines of an event at NSE here.

On the fund houses which have reportedly been marking down their investments in Vodafone Idea's paper to zero following the Supreme Court judgement on AGR, Tyagi said Sebi has sought a reply but refrained from directly commenting on it.