Securities Transaction Tax

Securities Transaction Tax (STT) is a tax payable in India on the value of securities (excluding commodities and currency) transacted through a recognized stock exchange. The tax is not applicable on off-market transactions or on commodity or currency transactions. The original tax rate was set at 0.125% for a delivery-based equity transaction and 0.025% on an intra-day transaction. The rate was set at 0.017% on all Futures and Options transactions. STT was originally introduced in 2004 by the then Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram to stop tax avoidance of capital gains tax. The government reduced this tax in the 2013 budget after a lot of protests for years by the brokers and the trading community. The revised STT for delivery-based equity trading is 0.01% on the turnover. For Futures, the tax has been reduced to 0.05% on the sell-side only. The rest of the tax structure remains as is. Securities transaction tax is a direct tax.Securities Transaction Tax is levied and collected by the union government of India.