What Is Basic Services Demat Account (BSDA)?

"Basic Services Demat Account" (BSDA) is a demat account with limited services and reduced costs for small investors.

Who can Open BSDA?

Any individual who wishes to have only one demat account where they are the sole or first holder shall be eligible to have a BSDA provided that the value of securities held in the demat account does not exceed Rupees Two Lakhs at any point of time.

Note that an individual can have only one BSDA in his/her name across all depositories.

What are the Charges?

The Annual Maintenance Charges (AMC) structure for BSDA are:

• If the holding value in the account is upto Rs. 50,000 there will be no charges.
• In case the value of holding in the account is between from Rs 50,001 to Rs 200,000 AMC, there will be charges upto Rs 100.
• The value of holding will be determined by the Depository Participants on the basis of the daily closing price or NAV of the securities or units of mutual funds.
• If the value of holding exceeds the prescribed limits on any date, the DPs may levy charges as applicable to regular accounts (non-BSDA) from that date onwards.

Points To keep in Mind

Transaction Statements

Transaction statements shall be sent to the BO at the end of each quarter. If there are no transactions in any quarter, no transaction statement may be sent for that quarter.

Holding Statement

One annual physical statement of holding shall be sent to the stated address of the Beneficial Owner (BO) in respect of accounts with no transaction and nil balance and for remaining accounts one annual statement of holding shall be sent in electronic or physical form as opted for by the BO.

Charges for statements

Electronic statements shall be provided free of cost. In case of physical statements, the DP shall provide at least two statements free of cost during the billing cycle. Additional physical statement may be charged at a fee not exceeding Rs.25/- per statement.

Rationalisation of services with respect to regular accounts: In order to reduce the cost of compliance of DPs, following rationalisation measures were decided for regular accounts:

Accounts with zero balance and nil transactions during the year.

The DPs shall send one physical statement of holding annually to such BOs and shall resume sending the transaction statement as and when there is a transaction in the account.

Accounts which become zero balance during the year

For such accounts, no transaction statement may be sent for the duration when the balance remains nil. However, an annual statement of holding shall be sent to the BO.

Accounts with credit balance

For accounts with credit balance but no transactions during the year, one statement of holding for the year shall be sent to the BO.

Source: SEBI
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