With the government unlikely to grant capital gains tax exemption to new bond issues this year, a large number of people who encashed on the housing boom will have to pay more tax.

Earlier, if you bought an apartment for, say, Rs 15 lakh and sold it off for Rs 30 lakh, you could have avoided paying the 22% capital gains tax if the profit (Rs 15 lakh) was used for buying a new house within three years of sale. Alternatively, you could have invested it in bonds issued by the likes of National Housing Bank , National Highways Authority of India, Nabard or Rural Electrification Corporation.

But this year onwards, finance minister P Chidambaram decided to restrict the benefit to investment in NHAI and REC bonds and also fixed a Rs 6,500 crore cap.