GST rides on the service charges, not on the taxes
A small structural detail that fixes a lot of confused cost calculations.
A recurring misunderstanding: people assume GST is applied to the whole contract note. It is not.
GST applies to the service components — brokerage, exchange transaction charges and the SEBI turnover fee. STT and stamp duty are themselves statutory levies and do not attract it.
What the base actually is
Add up brokerage plus exchange charges plus the SEBI fee. GST applies to that subtotal. Everything else on the note sits outside it.
STT and stamp duty are charged separately and are not part of this base.
Say whether your totals are inclusive
When a dashboard shows a charges column, half the confusion in the world comes from not knowing whether GST is inside it. Put it in the export header and stop guessing.
No input-credit features in a journal
Whether any of this interacts with a GST registration depends on facts a trading journal does not have and should not assume. Store the amount; leave the treatment to a professional.
- Store GST as its own field, never merged into brokerage
- State on every export whether charge totals include GST
- Reconcile the monthly total to the contract notes
- Leave any input-credit question to a professional
Key takeaways
- GST applies to brokerage, exchange charges and the SEBI fee.
- It does not apply to STT or stamp duty.
- State clearly whether your charge totals include GST.
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.