Brokers' Budget wish list: Reduce cost of trading

The issue of lowering statutory duties to bring down the cost of trading in domestic securities markets tops the agenda of stock brokers, who met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee last Friday to place their demands before him.

Brokers said the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) regime and high stamp duty charges on share market transactions were the main reasons for the high cost of trading in India. As per the current STT rate structure, a delivery-based cash market transaction is taxed at Rs 12,500 per Rs 1 crore, or 0.125 per cent. The tax is levied on both buyers and sellers.

Prior to April 2008, STT was allowed as a rebate against tax liability under Section 88E of the Income Tax Act. The rebate was discontinued as the tax outgo from broking firms was assumed to be low and most set off STT against their business income.

However, this change in the STT regime resulted in jobbers and arbitrageurs, who generated over 30 per cent volumes on bourses, losing their business.

“The rationalisation of stamp duty charges and STT will bring down the trading cost significantly and increase volumes in the market,” said Motilal Oswal, chairman of Mumbai-based Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Stamp duty charges for share market transactions differ in each state and brokers are sometimes subjected to double taxation as the Maharashtra government demands tax from them even if they are based outside the state.

Nirmal Agarwal, president of the Association of NSE Members of India (Anmi), said there was no country where both stamp duty and STT were charged on share market transactions. “Even markets where the cost of trading in the cash segment was up to 30 basis points (bps) have compensated traders by exempting them from the capital gains tax or by not considering their trading income as business income,” he said.

The statutory cost of trading in the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), where Nifty futures are listed, is one-fourth of that in India. This has led to a significant shift of trading volumes to overseas markets in the past one year. While the statutory cost of trading in India is as high as 1.3-1.8 bps for derivatives, in the US, Europe and most Asian markets, it ranges from 0.2 to 0.4 bps.

Apart from lowering of STT and stamp duty, brokers are also demanding that the government be more clear about the levy of a short-term capital gains tax. “The government should clarify the ambiguity created by a circular of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). It sets vague criteria for classifying short-term capital gains tax,” Dinesh Thakkar, managing director of Angel Stock Broking, said.

Anil Bagri, alternate president of Anmi, said: “The issue of giving industry status to broking, which would make fund raising for brokers easier, was also raised during the meeting.”