Different Charges on Share Trading Explained. Brokerage, STT, DP & More- There are a number of charges involved while trading in India i.e. buying or selling of shares. Some of them are common like brokerage charge & STT, while there are many whom the investors are not afraid of. In this post, I am going to explain all of the different charges on share trading. Some of them are brokerage charge, Security transaction charge, stamp duty etc. But before we learn about them, there are few basics things that we need to understand first.

So, be with me for the next 8-10 minutes to understand the explanation of all the different charges on share trading.

Following are the things that you need to know first:

1. Intraday Trading and Delivery:

• When you buy & sell a share on the same day, then it’s called an Intraday trading. For example, you bought a share in the morning and sold it before the market closes on the same day, then it will be considered as an intraday
• On the other hand, when you buy a share and hold it for at least one day, then it’s called a delivery. For example, you bought a share today and sold it any day but today then it will be considered it as a delivery. Here you can sell the stock tomorrow, or the day after that, or a week later, a year later or 20 years later.

 2. Full-Service Brokers and Discount Brokers:

• Full-Service brokers are the traditional brokers who offer full-service trading like stocks, commodities, currency along with research and advisory, sales and asset management, investment banking all in one account. For example, ICICI Direct, Kotak Securities etc.
• Discount brokers are who offer high speed and the state-of-the-art execution platform for trading in stocks, commodities and currency derivatives. They charge a reduced commission and do not provide investment advice. For example, Pro stocks, Zerodha, Trade Smart Online etc.
• In general, a full-service broker charge between 0.01% – 0.50% brokerage charge on Intraday and delivery.
• The discount brokers charge a flat fee (fixed fee of Rs 10 or Rs 20 per trade) on intraday and delivery trading. There are also a couple of discount brokers who do not charge any fee on delivery trading.

It is important to note that you have to pay a brokerage charge on both times of trading i.e. while buying a share and selling a share. There are some brokers (very few) who charge brokerage fee only at one side of transaction i.e. either on buying or selling.

Let’s take an example to understand the brokerage charge better. Suppose there is a brokerage firm called – ABC. Now, ABC charges a brokerage fee of 0.05% on intraday trading and 0.30% on delivery trading. The total charges on both tradings can be given as-

Intraday Trading	Delivery
Brokerage charge= 0.05% of total turnover	Brokerage charge= 0.30% of total turnover
If we buy a single stock worth Rs 100, then Brokerage charge = 0.05% of Rs 100 = Rs 0.05	If we buy a single stock worth Rs 100, then brokerage charge = 0.30% of Rs 100 = Rs 0.30
Total brokerage charge on trading (for both buying and selling) = 2 * 0.05 = Rs 0.10	Total brokerage charge on trading (for both buying and selling) = 2 * 0.30 = Rs 0.60

As the competitions in the brokers are increasing, the brokerage charges are decreasing. In coming days, these rates can even reduce further.

Apart from brokerage charge, there are also an additional couple of charges and taxes to be paid while share trading. For example, Security transaction tax, service tax, stamps duty, transaction charges, SEBI turnover charges, depository participant (DP) charges and capital gain tax.

Let’s understand the other different charges on share trading and taxes involved first. Then we will see an example for further understanding.

Different Charges on Share Trading-

Security Transaction Tax (STT):

• This is the second biggest charge after the brokerage charge.
• For delivery trading, STT is charged on both sides (buy & sell) of trading.
• For intraday trading, STT is charged only when you sell the stock.
• In general, for delivery, the STT charge is around 0.1% of total transaction (on each side of trading)
• For intraday, the STT charge is around 0.025% of the total transaction (while selling).

Service Tax:

It is same for intraday and delivery trading. Service tax is equal to the 15% of whatever brokerage charge you paid.

Stamp Duty:

This is charged by the state government. Different states have different stamp duty. Here is the stamp duty of two of the Indian states-

	Intraday	Delivery
Maharashtra	0.002%	0.01%
Delhi	0.0025%	0.0025%

Stamp duty is also charged on both sides of trading (buying & selling) and are charged on the total amount (turnover).

Transaction Charges:

• This is charged by the stock exchanges. Transaction charges are charged on both sides of the trading and are same for both intraday & delivery.
• National stock exchange (NSE) charges a transaction fee of 0.00325% of the total amount.
• Bombay stock exchange (BSE) charges a transaction fee of 0.00275% on total amount.

SEBI Turnover Charges:

• Here, SEBI stands for Securities exchange board of India and it is the security market regulator. SEBI makes the rules and regulations for the exchanges.
• It is charged on both sides of transaction i.e. while buying and selling.
• The SEBI turnover charge is 0.0002% of the total amount and is same for both intraday and delivery trading.

Depository Participant (DP) Charges:

• There are two stock depositories in India- NSDL (National Securities Depository Limited) and CDSL (Central Depository Services Limited).
• Whenever you buy a share, it is kept in an electronic form in a depository. For this service, the depositories charge some fixed amount.
• They don’t charge the investors directory but charge the depository participant. Here, the broker company or your demat account company is the depository participant (DP).
• DP acts as a linkage between the depository and the investor as the investors cannot approach depository directly. So, overall the depository charges the depository participant and then the depository participant (DP) charges the investors.
• DP charges are a flat of between Rs 10 to 35 depending on your broker and this is also charged only for delivery trading (not for intraday)

Capital Gain Tax:

• This is the most important tax to understand for a trader.
• There are two types of Capital gain tax – Short-term capital gain tax and Long-term capital gain tax.
• When you sell a stock before 1 year of buying, then it is considered as a Short-term. Here a flat 15% of the profit is charged as short-term capital gain tax.
• When you sell a stock after 1 year of buying, then it is called long-term capital gain tax. There is no tax on long-term capital gain.
• For a short-term capital gain tax, the delivery trader has to pay flat 15% and it doesn’t matter what tax slab they are in. But this doesn’t apply to an intraday trader as they have to pay capital gain tax according to their tax slab.
• As the long-term capital gain tax is nil, the big investors try to get maximum profit from it by investing for long term.

If you want to read further in details, I will recommend you to read this book: Everything You Wanted to Know About Stock Market Investing -Best selling book for stock market beginners. 

Now, let us see an example to understand these different charges on share trading and taxes involved better. Suppose there are two traders- Rajat and Prasad. Here Rajat is a delivery trader who invests in long-term i.e. for 2-3 years. On the other hand, Prasad is an intraday trader.

They both have their accounts in same brokerage company named ABC. The brokerage charge for ABC is 0.05% on intraday trading and 0.30% on delivery trading. Also, let us suppose that both Rajat and Prasad have invested a total of Rs 10,000 in the shares of Tata Motors. In addition, they both live in Maharastra.

Now the different charges and taxes paid by them for complete trading i.e. from buying to selling the shares can be given as-

	Rajat Delivery Trader (Long term)	Prasad (Intraday Trader)
Total Investment	Rs 10,000	Rs 10,000
Exchange	NSE	NSE
Brokerage Charge	0.30% of Total Amount = 0.30% of Rs 10,000 = Rs 30 Total brokerage charge= 2*30 = Rs 60	0.05% of Total Amount = 0.0% of Rs 10,000 = Rs 5 Total brokerage charge= 2*5 = Rs 10
STT	0.1% of total amount = 0.1 % of Rs 10,000 = Rs 10 Total STT = 2*10 = Rs 20	0.025% of total amount = 0.025 % of Rs 10,000 = Rs 2.5 Total STT = 1*2.5 = Rs 2.5
Service Tax	15% of brokerage charge =15% of Rs 60 = Rs 9	15% of brokerage charge =15% of Rs 10= Rs 1.5
Stamp Duty (Maharashtra)	0.01% of total amount = 0.01% of Rs 10,000= Rs 1 Total stamp duty = 2*1= Rs 2	0.002% of total amount = 0.002% of Rs 10,000= Rs 0.2 Total stamp duty = 2*0.2= Rs 0.4
Transaction Charges	0.00325% of total amount = 0.00325% of Rs 10,000= Rs 0.325 Total stamp duty = 2*0.325= Rs 0.65	0.00325% of total amount = 0.00325% of Rs 10,000= Rs 0.325 Total stamp duty = 2*0.325= Rs 0.65
SEBI Turnover Charge	0.0002% of total amount = 0.0002% of Rs 10,000= Rs 0.02 Total stamp duty = 2*0.02= Rs 0.04	0.0002% of total amount = 0.0002% of Rs 10,000= Rs 0.02 Total stamp duty = 2*0.02= Rs 0.04
DP Charge	Rs 15	NIL
Capital Gain Tax	0	Pays according to tax slab

 

Overall, here is the summary of all the charges and taxes paid by Rajat and Prasad.

	Rajat	Prasad
Brokerage Charge	Rs 60	Rs 10
STT	Rs 20	Rs 2.5
Service Tax	Rs 9	Rs 1.5
Stamp Duty (Maharashtra)	Rs 2	Rs 0.4
Transaction Charges	Rs 0.65	Rs 0.65
SEBI Turnover Charge	Rs 0.04	Rs 0.04
DP Charge	Rs 15	0
Capital Gain Tax	0	Pays according to tax slab
Total Charges	Rs 106.69	15.09 + Capital Gain Tax

On the first glance, it looks cheap to invest in intraday as the total charges are comparatively less here. But you should note that the frequency of trading for intraday traders is quite high. So, they have to pay these charges again and again.

Also, let us take a scenario where Prasad chooses to sell his stocks after 2-3 days as the prices were quite low on that day and he was expecting some price increase on next days. In such case, Prasad turns from an intraday trader to delivery trader. Hence, his total charges also changes from Rs 15.09 to Rs 169.69.

Let us also assume that Prasad makes a profit of Rs 100 on selling. So, the capital gain tax that he has to pay will be equal to 15% of Rs 100 i.e. Rs 15. Now his situation turns out like this-

Total Charges	Rs 106.69
Short term capital gain tax	Rs 15
Total Charges	Rs 124.63
Profit	Rs 100

Here, although Prasad’s profit is Rs 100, still his expenditure is Rs 124.69 on different charges. Overall, Prasad is in loss of Rs 24.69.

Hence, charges and taxes are a very important part of trading and should not be ignored. You might think that you are in profit, but the real profit is the one which is left after deducting the charges and profit. I hope the traders will keep this in mind before trading the next time.

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