‘Lower taxation costs’: Here’s what Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath expects from Budget 2022 

Like all of us, Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath also has a certain expectation from the upcoming Union Budget 2022-23. Kamath has urged the government to reduce securities transaction tax (STT), stamp duty and GST in the upcoming Budget.
 
The Zerodha boss also mentioned that traders lose more money in transaction and impact costs than the markets due to exorbitant STT, stamp duty and GST. He explained that lower taxation costs improve liquidity and decrease impact costs.
 
“Every budget day for the last 15+ years, I’ve woken up hoping that STT is reduced. Zerodha customers alone pay ~Rs 2,500 crores in STT, stamp duty and GST annually. Overall, traders lose more money in transaction costs and impact costs than to the markets,” Kamath tweeted.
 
He further wrote, “Lower taxation costs improve liquidity, hence decrease impact costs. But on flip side, you could argue that people may speculate more, which isn’t good – one reason for Nudges on Kite. There needs to be a balance between both. Hoping STT reduces this year,” he further tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI) has written to the government requesting a reduction in classification of income arising from stock market investments for tax computation, reintroduction of rebate against STT and commodities transaction tax (CTT) and certain other tax exemptions.
 
While reiterating that it believes that there is a “strong case for complete abolition” of STT and CTT, the industry body has said that the rebate can at least be brought back. “…the revenue implication on reintroduction of Section 88E will result in increased volumes and therefore much larger collection of STT/CTT and in fact, revenue could double due to increased participation in markets,” the ANMI stated.

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