New Delhi : Capital market participants and foreign institutional investors on Friday presented a charter of demands to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, which included rollback of surcharge on FPIs, review of dividend distribution tax and lowering of LTCG tax, in a bid to shore up investors’ sentiments.Sources said Sitharaman gave a patient hearing to them but restrained from making any firm commitments.Equity benchmarks rose for the second straight session on Friday amid hopes that the government may take some market-friendly measures to jumpstart the sluggish economy and assuage investor concerns over taxation.The meeting is part of the exercise being undertaken by the minister to firm up steps to increase investments and boost economy, which is showing signs of slowdown.During the meeting, it was also suggested that employees’ provident fund should be increase its exposure in the stock market, which in turn would improve liquidity, industry and official sources added.There was also a suggestion that the long-term capital gains (LTCG) tax be abolished or at least reduced.
