Sebi cuts demat charges

The Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has come out with no-frills demat accounts for small investors and slashed annual charges on investments in demat form in a bid to encourage wider retail participation in the stock market.

Small investors who hold their shares in demat form but hardly trade will not have to pay anything henceforth in case their investments are under Rs 50,000, Sebi said.

Those small investors who hold shares worth in the range of Rs 50,001 to Rs 2 lakh will have to pay an annual maintenance charge of just Rs 100, which is just a fraction of what they are paying now.

Currently, regardless of the value of holdings, some depository participants or the brokers who offer demat services to investors, charge anywhere in the range of Rs 225 to Rs 900 per annum.

Sebi made it clear that only those individual investors who own just one demat account and are the sole holder of the account will be able to avail the opportunity of reduced charges.