Cutoff date for cost of acquisition advanced, altering valuation and cost of improvement for long term capital assets. The amendment advances the cut off date for determining cost of acquisition and cost of improvement of long term capital assets so that, for assets acquired before the new cut off, cost of acquisition is taken as the asset's value on that cut off date (at the assessee's option) and cost of improvement is recognised only for improvements after that cut off date, affecting computation of capital gains for the relevant assessment years.