Companies are moving swiftly to buy back shares before new tax rules proposed in the budget take effect on October 1.
This will tax the buyback amount in the hands of shareholders as per their tax slabs. Currently, such transactions are taxed at about 23% at the company level.
Within just the three weeks since the budget announcement on July 23, 15 companies have already announced buybacks, compared with 18 that did so between January 1 and July 23.
The Board of 13 companies have met after the Budget announcement and proposed to buy back shares worth ₹4,572 crore.
Indus Tower leads the pack with an offer of ₹2,640 crore followed by AIA Engineering and Savita Oil Tech which will buyback shares worth ₹500 crore and ₹364 crore, respectively.