Index fund investing may not get cheaper as MFs likely to avoid price war

Navi MF's move to launch Nifty 50-based index fund at 0.06% had stoked fears of price war

The cost of investing in index funds is unlikely to decline further even as the latest entrant to mutual fund space Navi, set up by Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal, has unleashed a price war by announcing ultra-low expense ratio. Industry players said existing players may not cut their TER drastically as such low costs are unviable for their business.

Navi MF had announced the launch of Navi Nifty 50 Index Fund with an expense ratio of 0.06 per cent for its direct plan offering, the lowest for any index schemes in the market.

The expense ratio for existing schemes range