What is stamp duty?
Stamp duty is a government levy on financial transactions. For stock trades, it's been in place for decades but was unified nationally in January 2020 — before that, different states charged different rates, creating arbitrage between exchanges.
Importantly, stamp duty is only charged on the buy side. When you sell shares, you pay STT but not stamp duty.
Current rates
- Equity delivery (buy): 0.015% of purchase value
- Equity intraday (buy): 0.003% of purchase value
- Equity futures (buy): 0.002% of purchase value
- Equity options (buy): 0.003% of premium value
On a ₹50,000 delivery purchase: 0.015% × ₹50,000 = ₹7.50. On the sell: ₹0 stamp duty.