STT in the share market: meaning, rates and what you pay

STT, short for securities transaction tax, is a tax the government charges when you buy or sell shares, futures or options on a stock exchange. Your broker collects it on every trade and passes it to the government through the exchange. The rate is set by law, so STT is the same at every broker. On a delivery trade it is usually the largest charge you pay.

STT rates

The futures and options rates went up on 1 April 2026, from 0.02% on futures and 0.1% on option premium. The rates for shares did not change. Currency futures and options pay no STT. Commodity trades pay a similar tax called CTT instead.

What it comes to in rupees

• Delivery. You buy ₹1 lakh of shares and later sell them for ₹1 lakh. You pay ₹100 of STT on the buy and ₹100 on the sale, ₹200 in all.
• Intraday. The same ₹1 lakh bought and sold in a day pays ₹25, on the sale only.
• Futures. Selling futures worth ₹10 lakh pays ₹500. Buying them pays nothing.
• Options. Selling options for ₹20,000 of premium pays ₹30. The buyer of those options pays nothing when buying. If the buyer holds them to expiry and they end in the money, the buyer pays 0.15% of their intrinsic value.

On a ₹1 lakh delivery trade at Zerodha, all charges come to about ₹238, and STT is ₹200 of it. Switching brokers can only change part of the other ₹38. On an intraday trade of the same size STT is ₹25 of about ₹83, and brokerage is the larger part. Intraday trading charges shows that bill line by line.

Where to find it

Your broker's contract note lists STT for each trade, usually as "STT" or "securities transaction tax". It is charged on the trade date along with the other charges. Your yearly tax P&L statement from the broker also shows the total STT you paid.

STT and income tax

On capital gains. You can't deduct STT when you work out capital gains on shares. Profit on shares held for under a year is taxed at 20%, and on shares held longer at 12.5% above ₹1.25 lakh a year. Those rates apply only to shares sold on an exchange where STT was paid. The capital gains calculator works out both.

On business income. Intraday trading is taxed as speculative business income, and futures and options as non-speculative business income, both at your slab rate. Here STT counts as a business expense, so you deduct it from your trading profit before tax.

Why it matters for frequent trading

STT is charged on every trade, whether it made money or not. 100 delivery round trips of ₹50,000 a year pay ₹10,000 of STT. On futures, the April 2026 increase raised the STT on a ₹10 lakh sale from ₹200 to ₹500. Add STT to your other charges before you decide how often to trade. The charges calculator includes it on every trade, and what a stock trade costs explains the other charges.

STT on a delivery round trip = 0.1% of the buy value + 0.1% of the sell value

Rates are from Zerodha's charges page, checked on 25 October 2026. The April 2026 increase on futures and options was announced in the Union Budget on 1 February 2026.