What is a Basic Service Demat Account (BSDA)?

A Basic Service Demat Account (BSDA) as the name suggest is the demat account with limited services at a reduced cost. A person is allowed to hold securities of value up to Rs 2 lakh in BSDA by paying a minimal AMC.

It is a step by SEBI to protect the small investors from paying a high maintenance fee. It is the felt that majority of DEMAT account holders don’t really use their accounts as much as they should and still end up paying high maintenance fees. So, to help out such investors, SEBI came up with this account type.

The conditions for BSDA are:

• An individual who wants to have a BSDA should be sole or the first holder of the account.
• An individual can have only one BSDA in his/her name across all depositories.
• The brokerage and taxes remain the same for BSDA and regular accounts.

The AMC Charges for BSDA is on slab basis as follows:

if the value of holding is

1. Up to Rs 50,000 - there will be No AMC
2. For value of holding from Rs 50,001 to Rs 200,000 - AMC will be up to Rs. 100

The value of holding shall be determined by the DPs (brokers) on the basis of the daily closing price or NAV of the securities or units of mutual funds. If the value of holding in such BSDA exceeds the prescribed criteria at any date, the DPs may levy charges as applicable to the regular account (non-BSDA) from that date onwards.