Are stocks sold by NRI in USA in terms of long-term capital gains tax are taxable in India

Raju Kanumuri: Income Tax laws in India specify that immovable property held for more than 36 months – or 3 years – before sale, fall under long-term capital gains. For stocks, shares and bonds, this period is more than 12 months instead of 36 months. Unlisted securities, on the other hand, will be considered as long-term capital gains only if sold after 36 months.
Calculating the long-term capital gains is a little more complicated. The 3 items you need to subtract from the total sales value are:

Brokerage or expenditure incurred in connection with the sale of the asset
Indexed purchase price of the asset
Indexed cost is arrived at when the price is adjusted against the rise in inflation in the asset’s value. The Government of India releases Cost Inflation Index, through which the indexed cost can be estimated. The Cost Inflation Index (CII) from the fiscal year 1981-82 to 2016-17 are available.
Union Budget 2018 declared by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 1st February 2018 brought a modest change in the long-term capital gains tax regime. In the budget, he proposed to impose tax on the long term capital gains arising from transfer of listed equity shares, units of equity-oriented fund and unit of a business trust which were exempted from tax earlier. According to the new reform, all the capital gains that are more than Rs.1 lakh in amount will be charged at 10% tax rate without any inflation indexation benefit. However, the gains made on and before 31st January 2018 will be exempted from this new rule.

As per Jaitley, this reform has been initiated to balance the equity market. The exemption on such assets has made the equity market buoyant on one hand and on the other it has resulted a difference against manufacturing resulting in investment of more business surpluses in the financial assets. According to the filed returns for A.Y.17-28, the total exempted capital gains from such assets is approximately Rs.3,67,000 crore. Since, the equity market investment returns is vibrant enough without any tax exemption, the government has taken the decision to bring the long-term capital gains from the exempted equities under tax to create a stability in the equity market.