Retrospective tax is a tax that is imposed on transactions or deals that were conducted in the past. It was introduced in a 2012 amendment to the Financial Act to impose tax on deals that were executed after 1962 involving transfer of shares in a foreign entity that had assets in India.
The Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was introduced in the Parliament recently to refund Rs.8,100 core collected with the 2012 retrospective tax law. It does away with the tax regime that resulted in India losing high profile arbitration cases Cairn Energy and Vodafone.