Brokers call off plan to boycott trading today

The broking community has decided not to boycott trading on Monday, as planned earlier, and instead await the outcome of a meeting with the Union Finance Minister in Delhi on Tuesday.

Brokers from the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange had earlier decide to stay away from their trading terminals on Monday to mark their protest against the Budget proposal to levy a 0.15 per cent transaction tax.

At a meeting of brokers representative bodies late on Friday night, the consensus was to defer the agitation for the time being. Instead, representatives from the BSE Brokers' Forum and the Association of NSE members of India (ANMI) will meet the finance minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday.

Mohan Vijayan, president, BSE Brokers Forum confirmed the development and said, "Members of the BSE Brokers Forum and ANMI together will meet the finance minister and present a set of alternatives that can replace the proposed transaction tax."

The idea is to make sure that the impact cost remains low, and the liquidity in the market is not killed. which is one of the lowest in the world, Vijayan added.

Brokers said the 0.15 per cent transaction tax would kill the day-traders and arbitrageurs who provide 60-70 per cent of the daily traded volumes on the bourses.

According to sources in the know, the Association of Mutual Funds of India too will separately meet the finance minister next week on the issue of mutual funds being kept out of the exemption from capital gain tax.