Tax proposal in Budget 2019 hits Indian companies' year of share buybacks

The decision by India’s government to impose a tax on stock buybacks puts the brakes on what could have been another great year for share repurchases.

More than 70 companies, including software exporter Wipro Ltd., announced or completed Rs 354.6 billion ($5.2 billion) of share buybacks in the first half of 2019, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s about two thirds of the Rs 546 billion of such transactions for all of 2018, which was the most in at least six years, the data show.

“In the last three years, buybacks had supported the rally in stocks and helped improve the earnings