Tax dodge: CSE actives, volumes fall

The number of active scrips on Calcutta Stock Exchange (CSE) has halved in the new financial year. And the drop in trading volume on the bourse is even more pronounced: its down by two-thirds, compared with what it was in the last week of March.

Lyons Range sources say the rise in activities on the CSE in March and the subsequent fall in April has helped investors evade tax of nearly Rs 500 crore last year. The official quotation of CSE reveals that only 62 scrips are traded today against the average number of over 130 stocks in the last week of March.

Today's trading volume stands at Rs 4.17 crore compared with the last week's average of Rs 13-14 crore.

Sources say the hectic activities at the investment counters "" called as "jama kharchi" in Lyons Range's parlance "" has become the lifeline of the century-old bourse.

A Lyons Range source said a section of the broking community, who had hoped that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi)-appointed officer in charge of the bourse will be manage to arrest the practice that causes huge losses to the government exchequer was proved wrong.

"At least on this count, there is no difference between a Sebi-appointed administrator and a broker-president," he added.

When queried on this, the Sebi officer in charge of the bourse had said last month that the exchange was keeping an eye on the rise of activities at the investment stocks. However, the results of the vigilance are not known.

Jama kharchi trades help an individual to evade tax by artificially incurring losses on paper. It also helps convert black money into white by recording profits, again on paper.