Business
Tax wealthiest to end rip-off Britain, says Green leader Polanski
Kate WhannelPolitical reporter
Newly-elected Green Party leader Zack Polanski has told his party’s conference a tax on the wealthiest would end “rip-off Britain” and make the country “an affordable” place to live.
Addressing members in Bournemouth, he said taxing the assets of the richest 1% would enable the government to fund universal free childcare, special needs education and rural bus routes.
He also defended migrants and refugees to loud applause from the audience and accused Labour of being “handmaidens” of Reform UK adding: “When Farage says jump, Labour asks ‘how high’.”
Polanski has described himself as an “eco-populist” and is seeking to shift the party to the left to take on Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
The prime minister has sought to tighten immigration controls in recent months, in what is being seen by critics as a response to Reform leading national opinion polls.
But Sir Keir launched an attack on Reform leader Nigel Farage in his Labour conference speech this week, accusing him of sowing division and not believing in Britain – something denied by Farage.
Polanski described Farage as a “Trump-loving corporate stooge” and accused Sir Keir of jumping to his tune.
Unusually for a speech by a Green Party leader, Polanski did not focus primarily on the environment.
He told the conference: “You can not be an effective environmentalist without talking about the deep inequality in our society.”
Much of his speech centred on the problems posed by the cost of living, pointing to a rise in homelessness, tenants worried about their rent and families struggling to pay bills.
Polanski argued that the country’s problems were “rooted in an economic model built on austerity and privatisation” but that the Green Party would “break the shackles of poverty and hardship that lock so many in”.
“This is a country with so much going for it, but we have been failed time and time again by a political class poisoned by extreme wealth and you can see that poison everyday.”
“A country where a tiny few have taken our power and wealth. Things must change. It’s time to take it back.”
He said some voters might worry that they could be hit by taxes on the wealthiest being proposed by his party.
“Hairdressers and plumbers say understandably ‘I’ve worked hard all my life. Why are you taxing me? Why are you taxing my ambition?'”
However, Polanski said he was targeting people who “will make more money in one night than everyone in this room could probably earn in an entire year”.
In a 20 minute speech, Polanski told the conference his party’s “horizons” would not be “narrow” and that he would “not be silent” on “the mass slaughter in Palestine”.
“We must stop selling arms to Israel, we must stop sharing intelligence,” he said.
He also criticised what he called a “draconian crackdown on the right to protest”.
“From terrorist proscription against protesters, to banning journalists from their conference, to diving into a rushed evidence-free plan for digital IDs that are likely to discriminate against minorities – the alarm bells of authoritarianism are now ringing.”
In his defence of refugees and migrants, Polanski said it was the “economic system” that was a “threat to the places we love… not people arriving small boats”.
To loud cheers from party members he declared: “We’ll say it loud, we’ll say it clear migrants and refugees are welcome here.”
He said the Greens wanted to stop small boats crossing the Channel through “safe and legal routes”.
He also blamed “a politics that tries to divide us and points the finger at each other, instead of at billionaires”.
In a contrast with comments from Sir Keir earlier this year, who said the UK risked becoming an “island of strangers”, Polanski said: “This is a nation of neighbours.”
He said defending migration was important to him because of his own “confused and muddled” Jewish ancestry, which saw his family flee from Latvia to Ukraine to Poland and eventually to England.
Taking a moment to mark Thursday’s attack on a synagogue in Manchester, where Polanski grew up, he said “my heart is with the community.”
In the past year the Green Party has built on its success at the 2024 general election – when it won four MPs – by winning 74 seats in the local council elections.
Last month, Polanski was overwhelmingly backed by members in a leadership contest against the less combative duo of Green MPs Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns.
Since the election the party says its membership has risen by 20% to an all-time high of 80,000.
Polanski, who is a member of the London Assembly but does not have a seat in Parliament, has expressed interest in working with the new party being set up by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and former Labour MP Zarah Sultana.
Speaking after the leadership election, he said it was “too soon to talk about joining electoral coalitions”, but he was interested in working with “anyone who wants to challenge a failing Labour government and take on fascism and the far right”.
Business
Budget 2026: Market Leaders Urge Govt To Reduce STT; What’s This, How Does It Impact Investors?
Last Updated:
Budget 2026: Market participants urge Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to reduce the securities transaction tax (STT), especially on cash market transactions.
The Securities Transaction Tax (STT) is a tax levied on the purchase and sale of securities on recognised stock exchanges. (Photo Credit: Freepik)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday chaired the fourth pre-Budget consultation with the stakeholders from the capital markets to discuss the next Union Budget 2026-27. According to CNBC-TV18 citing sources, market participants urged the government to reduce the securities transaction tax (STT), especially on cash market transactions.
The industry also pushed for reforms in the buyback taxation, calling for the levy to apply only on the profit component of a buyback instead of the entire amount, according to the report. Steps to boost retail participation in the equities markets were also discussed, along with a proposal to raise retail ownership from the current 5% to 8% over time.
Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. @nsitharaman chairs the fourth Pre-Budget Consultation with the stakeholders from the capital markets in connection with the forthcoming Union Budget 2026-27, in New Delhi, today.The meeting was also attended by Union… pic.twitter.com/RT5LmWZMrI
— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) November 18, 2025
What’s STT, And How Does It Impact Investors?
The Securities Transaction Tax (STT) is a tax levied on the purchase and sale of securities on recognised stock exchanges. Introduced in 2004, it applies to equity shares, derivatives, equity-oriented mutual fund units, and ETFs. The tax is collected upfront by the exchange and passed on to the government, making compliance automatic and eliminating the need for separate filing.
Current STT Rates, How STT Works
The rate of STT differs depending on the type of transaction:
- For equity delivery trades, STT is charged on both buy and sell sides.
- For intraday and derivatives, it is typically levied only on the sell side.
- Options attract STT on premium, while futures attract it on the contract value.
Because the tax is charged on every trade, the impact compounds for frequent traders and high-volume participants such as proprietary desks, HNIs, and institutions.
As of now, STT on cash-market delivery trades is 0.1 per cent on both the buy and sell side, which is Rs 100 per Rs 1 lakh of trade value when you buy, and another Rs 100 per Rs 1 lakh when you sell. Intraday equity trades attract STT of 0.025 per cent (Rs 25 per Rs 1 lakh) on the sell leg only. In the derivatives segment, the tax is 0.02 per cent on the sale value of equity futures (Rs 20 per Rs 1 lakh) and 0.1 per cent of the option premium on the sale of equity options; if an option is exercised, a separate STT is levied on the intrinsic value at settlement.
How Can Lower STT Benefit Investors?
STT directly raises the cost of trading. Even a small reduction benefits:
- Retail traders, by increasing net return on intraday and F&O trades.
- Derivatives markets, where margins are already tight and volumes are high.
- Liquidity, as lower trading costs can encourage participation.
In the run-up to Budget 2026, this has become a key demand from market leaders looking to keep transaction costs competitive.
Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h…Read More
Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h… Read More
November 18, 2025, 17:54 IST
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Home Depot on Tuesday cut its full-year profit forecast and missed Wall Street’s earnings expectations for the third straight quarter as it saw weaker home improvement demand, tepid consumer spending and lower than usual storm activity.
The retailer said it now expects full-year sales will climb about 3% and comparable sales, which take out the impact of one-time factors like store openings and calendar differences, to be slightly positive. That compares to its previous expectations for full-year sales to grow by 2.8% and comparable sales to increase by 1%.
The revised outlook includes an estimated $2 billion in incremental revenue from GMS, a building-products distributor that Home Depot acquired earlier this year. The company’s sales were not part of its previous full-year guidance.
Home Depot expects full-year adjusted earnings per share to decline by about 5% from the year-ago period, compared to its prior expectations that they would fall by about 2%
In a CNBC interview, Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said the retailer previously expected home improvement activity would increase. It also anticipated higher sales of roofing materials, generators and other supplies that typically sell before and after seasonal storms.
Neither dynamic materialized, he said, putting pressure on the business.
“When we set guidance, we had anticipated that demand would begin to accelerate gradually in the back half of the year as interest rates and mortgage rates eased,” he said. “But what we saw was that ongoing consumer uncertainty and continued pressure in housing are disproportionately impacting home improvement demand.”
Here’s what Home Depot reported for the fiscal third quarter compared with Wall Street’s estimates, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG:
- Earnings per share: $3.74 adjusted vs. $3.84 expected
- Revenue: $41.35 billion vs. $41.11 billion expected
Home Depot’s stock dropped about 2% in premarket trading Tuesday. As of Monday’s close, the company’s shares are down about 8% so far this year. That trails the S&P 500’s 13% gains during the same period.
For Home Depot, housing turnover typically sparks larger and more lucrative projects as customers fix up their homes before or after moving. Those big projects, however, have dropped in frequency as higher interest rates have led to steeper mortgage rates and borrowing costs for loans, which a homeowner may use to pay for a kitchen remodel or major addition.
Since roughly the middle of 2023, McPhail has told CNBC that homeowners have been in a “deferral mindset.” That’s led to a bit of a waiting game for Home Depot, as it awaits either lower mortgage rates or a shift by consumers who get used to higher mortgage rates as the new normal.
In the most recent three-month period, that waiting game continued. McPhail told CNBC that demand was “stable” from the fiscal second quarter to the third quarter when adjusting for the lack of hurricanes.
But, he added, “at this point, it’s hard to identify near-term catalysts that would lead to acceleration.”
Home Depot’s net income for the three-month period that ended Nov. 2 dropped to $3.60 billion, or $3.62 per share, from $3.65 billion, or $3.67 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue decreased from $40.22 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Average ticket, the typical amount spent by customers at the store or on the company’s website, rose 1.8% year over year in the quarter. However, customer transactions fell 1.6% year over year.
A bright spot in the quarter was online sales, which rose by 11% year over year, McPhail said.
Compared to other big-box retailers, Home Depot’s customers tend to be more financially stable. About 90% of its do-it-yourself customers own their homes and the home professionals who shop at the retailer tend to get hired by homeowners.
Even so, McPhail said Home Depot’s weaker outlook came in part because shoppers across income groups are reluctant to take on high-dollar projects. He said a slower housing market and the higher cost of borrowing has contributed to the trend.
He said other factors may also be having a chilling effect, including the prolonged government shutdown, an uptick in corporate layoff announcements and a decline in home values in some markets.
As do-it-yourself customers postpone bigger projects, the company has tried to attract more business from contractors, roofers and other professionals.
The company has made two key purchases of pro-related companies. Last year, it bought Texas-based SRS Distribution for $18.25 billion — the largest acquisition in its history. The company sells supplies to professionals in the landscaping, pool and roofing businesses. Earlier this year, Home Depot announced it was buying GMS.
Like other retailers, Home Depot has felt the pinch of higher costs on some imported items because of tariffs. McPhail said in May that the company was diversifying the countries where it sourced its goods and intended to “generally maintain our current pricing levels across our portfolio.”
However, company leaders warned in August that it may have to hike prices in some categories because of higher tariffs.
McPhail told CNBC that Home Depot has increased some items’ prices, but said “where there were price actions, they were modest.”
He said Home Depot has kept prices the same for some key items or even been able to reduce them. For example, he said, its best-selling seven-and-a-half foot Grand Duchess Christmas tree and many of its strings of lights for trees have dropped in price.
The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has begun monitoring 21 beverage manufacturing units as part of its efforts to curb tax evasion. According to officials, the FBR has instructed Inland Revenue teams to keep a close eye on the sales records of these beverage-producing companies.
The monitoring drive has initially been launched in Lahore and other regions where major food and beverage production facilities are located.
These teams will review sales data for mineral water, dairy products, milk chocolates, energy drinks, and various other items.
FBR has empowered these teams under Section 40-B of the Sales Tax Act, enabling them to oversee sales, purchases, and stock levels of the manufacturing units.
The monitoring will be conducted daily to detect tax evasion.
These teams will also maintain daily data on sales and purchases of these manufacturing units.
Budget 2026: Market Leaders Urge Govt To Reduce STT; What’s This, How Does It Impact Investors?
Australia’s jobless rate eases to 4.3% in October: ABS
Home Depot cuts earnings outlook as home improvement demand falls short of expectations
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