Mere use of borrowed funds or the volume of share transactions...

Mere use of borrowed funds or the volume of share transactions did not change the character of shareholdings into stock-in-trade where the assessee consistently treated listed shares as investments and held them for more than 12 months. The Tribunal applied the settled principle that intention, consistency in treatment, and the surrounding facts govern classification of share transaction income. As the Assessing Officer relied only on the alleged flow of borrowed funds and did not make an objective analysis of frequency, holding period, intention at purchase, or book treatment, the gains were correctly assessed as capital gains. The Tribunal upheld the CIT(A) and treated both long-term and short-term gains as capital gains, not business income.

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