Different Charges on Share Trading Explained. Brokerage, STT, DP & More (Updated): There are a number of charges and taxes involved while trading in India i.e. buying or selling of shares. Some of them are quite popular like Brokerage Charge & GST, while there are many others that the traders and investors are not aware of. In this post, I am going to explain all types of different charges on share trading. Some common ones are brokerage charges, Security transaction charges (STT), stamp duty, etc.

Anyways, before we start discussing them, let us spend a few minutes to learn a few basics things that you need to know first. So, be with me for the next 10-12 minutes to understand the explanation of all the different charges on share trading. Let’s get started.

1. Intraday Trading and Delivery

A lot many beginners trades in stocks and confuse it by investing or delivery. However, both of them are really different:

1. Intraday Trading: When you buy & sell a share on the same day, then it’s called 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
2. Delivery Trading: On contrary to Intraday, 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 after three days (or any day but today) then it will be considered 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:

1. Full-Service brokers: These are the traditional brokers who offer full-service trading services in stocks, commodities, currencies, mutual funds, etc along with research and advisory, portfolio and asset management, banking all in one account. For example, ICICI Direct, Kotak Securities. HDFC securities, etc.
2. Discount brokers: These are those budget brokers 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 (flat price) and do not provide trading advice. For example, Zerodha, 5Paisa, Angel Broking, Trade Smart Online, etc.

Also read: 8 Best Discount Brokers in India – Stockbrokers List 2020

In general, a full-service broker charges a brokerage between 0.03% – 0.60% of the transaction volume while trading in stocks. On the other hand, the discount brokers charge a flat fee (fixed rate of Rs 10 or Rs 20 per trade) on intraday. The majority of discount brokers also do not charge any fee on delivery trading.

It is important to note that you have to pay a brokerage charge on both sides of trading i.e. while buying a share and selling a share.  Let’s take an example to understand the brokerage charge better.

Suppose there is a brokerage firm called – ABC. Now, this broker charges a brokerage fee of 0.275% on intraday trading and 0.55% on delivery trading. The total charges on both tradings can be given as-

As the competition among the brokers is continuously increasing, these brokerage charges offered by the different brokers are also decreasing. For example, the discount brokers like Zerodha offers a flat fee of Rs 20 or 0.01% on Intraday trading (whichever is lower) and Delivery investments are FREE. Therefore, for the above table, assuming the same scenario, the person would be paying only Rs 2.45 in Intraday Trading and Zero Brokerage on Delivery, if he prefers Zerodha as its broker.

Now, apart from brokerage charges, there are also an additional couple of charges and taxes to be paid while share trading. As already mentioned earlier, some of them are Security transaction tax, service tax, stamps duty, transaction charges, SEBI turnover charges, depository participant (DP) charges, and also capital gain tax (which you’ve to pay at the end of the financial year but not while transacting).

Let’s understand these other different charges on share trading and taxes involved first. Further, we will also discuss an example at the end of this post to understand the charges and taxes involved better.

Different Charges on Share Trading

– Security Transaction Tax (STT)

1. Apart from brokerage, this is the second biggest charge involved while trading in stocks.
2. For delivery trading, STT is charged on both sides (buy & sell) of transactions and is equal to 0.1% of the total transaction price (on each side of trading).
3. For intraday and derivate trading (futures and options), STT is charged only when you sell the stock. For intraday, the STT charge is 0.025% of the total transaction price while selling.
4. For equity Futures, the STT is equal to 0.01% on the sell-side. On the other hand, for equity options trading, STT is equal to 0.05% on sell-side (on premium).

– Stamp Duty

Stamp duty is charged uniformly irrespective of the state of residence effective from July 1st, 2020. These new rates are only on the buy-side (and not on both buy and sell-side). Here are the new rates on stamp duty on different types of trades:

Quick Note: Previously, the stamp duty was charged by the state government and hence not similar across all the states in India. A few states charged higher stamp duty, whereas a few of them charges lower duty taxes. Different states charge different stamp duty. Moreover, Stamp duty used to be charged on both sides of transactions while trading ( i.e. buying & selling) and hence are charged on the total turnover. **This rule changed after 1st July, 2020.

– Transaction Charges

1. The transaction charges is charged by the stock exchanges and that too on both sides of the trading.  This charge is the same for intraday & delivery trading.
2. National stock exchange (NSE) charges a fee of 0.00325% of the total turnover as Transaction charges on Equity and Delivery Trading. On the other hand, Bombay stock exchange (BSE) charges a fee of 0.003% of total turnover as Transaction charges on Equity and Delivery Trading.
3. For Derivatives trading, BSE doesn’t cost any transaction charges. However, on NSE, the Exchange transaction charge is 0.0019% for futures trading and 0.05% of total turnover for Options Trading.

– SEBI Turnover Charges

1. SEBI stands for the Securities exchange board of India and it is the security market regulator. SEBI makes the rules and regulations on the exchanges for its proper functioning.
2. SEBI Turnover fee is charged on both sides of the transaction i.e. while buying and selling and is the same for all equity intraday, delivery, futures, and options trading.
3. The SEBI turnover charge is equal to Rs 10 per crore of the total turnover.

– Depository Participant (DP) Charges

1. 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.
2. The depositories don’t charge the traders or investors directory but charge the depository participant. Here, the brokerage firm or your demat account company is the depository participant (DP).
3. DP acts as a linkage between the depository and the investor as the investors cannot directly approach the depository. In short, the depository charges the DP and then the depository participant (DP) charges the investors.
4. For example, while trading with Zerodha, DP charge is equal to ₹13.5 + GST per scrip (irrespective of quantity), on the day, is debited from the trading account, i.e. when stocks are sold. This is charged by the depository and depository participant.

– Goods & Service Taxes (GST)

GST is the mandatory tax levied by the government on the services rendered and is equal to 18% of total brokerage and transaction charges.

– Capital Gain Taxes

Lastly, Capital gain taxes is the most important tax to understand in this article for the traders and investors. We are not going to cover all the details regarding capital gain taxes in this article, but just a short over. If you want to read the complete details, you can refer to this article.

1. There are two types of Capital gain taxes in India – Short-term capital gain tax and Long-term capital gain tax.
2. When you sell a stock before one 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.
3. When you sell a stock after one year of holding, then it is called the long-term. For the long term capital gain, you have to pay a tax equal to 10% of the gains, if it exceeds Rs 1 lakh.
4. For Intraday Traders, they need to pay taxes on their capital gains which depends on their tax slab. For example, if you’re in the highest tax slab and made some profits while intraday trading, you’ve to pay taxes of 30% on those gains.

Quick Note: You can also download our FREE android app of ‘Brokerage Calculator’ to find the total brokerage and actual profits/loss while trading in stocks ‘on your phone’. Here is the quick link!

Example of Different Charges on Share Trading

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 the long-term i.e. for 2-3 years. On the other hand, Prasad is an intraday trader.

They both have their accounts in the same discount brokerage company named ABC. The brokerage charge for ABC is Rs 20 Per trade on intraday trading and FREE for delivery trading.

Also, let us suppose that both Rajat and Prasad have traded a total turnover of Rs 98,000 in a share (i.e. total cost involved while buying and selling). 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-

At 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. Many intraday traders easily make 2-3 high volume trades every day. So, they have to pay these brokerage charges and taxes again and again. On the other hand, delivery traders or long-term investors do not make such frequent trades.

Overall, 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.

Zerodha Brokerage Calculator

Before ending this article, here’s the brokerage calculator for equity trades using Zerodha, the discount broker.

Quick Note: If you’re interested in opening your demat account with Zerodha, the No 1 stockbroker in India, here’s a direct link to the account opening page.

That’s all for this post. If you’ve any doubts related to the different charges on share trading in India, feel free to comment below. I’ll be happy to help you out. Cheers & Happy Trading!

Kritesh Abhishek

Hi, I am Kritesh (Tweet me here), an NSE Certified Equity Fundamental Analyst and an electrical engineer (NIT Warangal) by qualification. I have a passion for stocks and have spent my last 4+ years learning, investing and educating people about stock market investing. And so, I am delighted to share my learnings with you. #HappyInvesting

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