Provisions pertaining to bonus stripping and dividend stripping to be made applicable to securities and units

Section 94 of the Act contains anti avoidance provisions to deal with transactions in securities and units of mutual fund which, inter-alia, include dividend stripping and bonus stripping.

2. However, the current provisions of sub-section (8) of section 94 of the Act do not apply to bonus stripping undertaken in case of securities. It is also not applicable to units of Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT) or Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) or Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) as the definition of the term “unit” has not been modified subsequent to introduction of provisions relating to RETIs, InvITs etc. Further, the current provisions of sub-section (7) of section 94 of the Act, i.e. provisions pertaining to dividend stripping, are not applicable to the units of new pooled investment vehicles such as InvIT or REIT or AIFs.

3. In view of the above, it is proposed to amend sub-section (8) of section 94, pertaining to the prevention of tax evasion through bonus stripping, so as to make the said provision applicable to securities as well.

4. It is also proposed to amend the Explanation to the said section to modify the definition of unit, so as to include units of business trusts such as InvIT, REIT and AIF, within the definition of units.

5. This amendment will take effect from 1st April, 2023 and will accordingly apply in relation to the assessment year 2023-24 and subsequent assessment years.

[Clause 25]

Bonus and dividend stripping rules extended to securities and pooled investment units, widening anti avoidance coverage. Section 94's anti avoidance provisions will be amended to apply sub section (8) on bonus stripping to securities and to expand dividend stripping rules to units of pooled investment vehicles by revising the Explanation to redefine 'unit' to include business trust units such as InvITs, REITs and AIFs, thereby closing existing scope gaps and applying the provisions from the specified assessment year forward.