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If you plan to sell your equity investments within 12 months, you will attract more tax than before, as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that short-term capital gains (STCG) on some assets will be hiked from the current 15% to 20%.

"Short-term gains on certain financial assets shall henceforth attract a tax rate of 20 per cent, while that on all other financial assets and all non-financial assets shall continue to attract the applicable tax rate," FM said.

Additionally, the long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax has been hiked from the current 10% to 12.5%.

Notably, the exemption limit for long-term capital gains tax has been increased to Rs 1.25 lakh from Rs 1 lakh.

Sitharaman also announced that listed financial assets held for more than a year will be classified as long-term.

The budget proposed increasing the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) rate on the sale of an option in securities from 0.0625% to 0.1% of the option premium and on the sale of futures in securities from 0.0125% to 0.02% of the price at which such futures are traded.

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