The government has introduced a slew of tax measures in the union budget 2019 directed at taxing rich individuals and entities. One of these measures was the proposal to levy a tax on listed companies when they buy back shares from the shareholders. The imposition of 20% tax on share buyback which was earlier applicable only to unlisted companies drew in a lot of flak and concerns from corporate giants. The stipulation was brought in as an anti-abuse provision to discourage buyback of shares and encourage dividend distribution to shareholders in case of surplus earnings by a company. There was a feeling that listed companies took to the buy-back route to avoid paying the dividend distribution tax (DDT) pegged at an effective rate of 20.5576%. Therefore, it was deemed essential to plug this loophole that corporates were exploring to evade taxes. However, it is unfair to look at the corporate action of share buyback from such a narrow perspective. Apart from being a tax saving option, buyback also increases earnings per share of the company, avail positive debt-equity ratio and facilitates an exit route to shareholders. On that account, the government needs to issue a clarification regarding the applicability of the announcement to existing buyback proposals and other legal implications of the same. >>