Brokerage, STT, GST: store the lines, skip the deduction advice
Separate columns now, legal mapping later. Also: what GST is actually charged on.
The contract note is essentially a grocery bill with unfamiliar items. Collapse everything into one "charges" figure and you lose the ability to answer any question about it later.
Who charges what
Brokerage goes to your broker. STT and stamp duty are statutory. Exchange transaction charges go to the exchange, and the SEBI turnover fee goes to the regulator. GST sits on top of the service components.
One detail people routinely get wrong: GST applies to brokerage, exchange transaction charges and the SEBI fee — not to STT or stamp duty. You are not paying tax on tax there.
| Line | Collected for | GST applies? |
|---|---|---|
| Brokerage | Your broker | Yes |
| Exchange transaction charge | NSE / BSE | Yes |
| SEBI turnover fee | SEBI | Yes |
| STT | Central government | No |
| Stamp duty | State government | No |
Structure of the bill. Rates change by segment and by notification — read your own note.
Why separate columns pay off
Six months later you will want to ask a narrow question: did brokerage rise because of a plan change, or did statutory charges rise because of a rate revision, or did I simply trade more? One merged column cannot answer that.
The line a journal must not cross
Storing amounts is bookkeeping. Telling you what is deductible against which head of income is tax advice. Reconcile month-end totals to the contract notes, hand the file over, and let a professional do the second part.
Separate fields let you answer why the total moved. One merged column cannot.
Key takeaways
- Keep each charge type in its own field.
- GST rides on brokerage and exchange fees, not on STT or stamp duty.
- Reconcile to contract notes before anything is filed.
Where these numbers come from
Not tax advice. This is journal bookkeeping, written for traders who keep their own records. Rates, forms and thresholds change every Budget. Your CA sees your salary, AIS and broker reports together — we see none of that.
Not advice, not a call. NiyataBook is a personal trading journal, not a SEBI-registered investment adviser or research analyst. Everything above looks backwards at trades that already closed. What happened in a book does not promise what happens next, and F&O can take a year’s savings in a week.