Charges DP charge contract note depository charge funds ledger CDSL

Why the DP charge does not appear on the contract note

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What this is about

A client who sells delivery shares on Zerodha and then opens the contract note for that trade will not find the DP charge on it. The contract note lists brokerage, STT , exchange transaction charges, the SEBI turnover fee, stamp duty , and GST, but the Rs 15.34 per-scrip DP charge is absent. This is by design, not an omission. The DP charge is a depository charge, levied on the demat debit rather than on the trade, so it is posted to the funds ledger separately.

The distinction matters because the two documents serve different purposes. A contract note is the legal record of a trade and the trade-level charges that attach to it. The funds ledger is the running record of every credit and debit to a client’s account, including charges that arise from depository operations rather than from the trade itself. The DP charge belongs to the second category.

This article explains what the contract note records and why, what the DP charge actually is and who levies it, why a depository charge cannot sit on a trade document, and exactly where a client should look to find the Rs 15.34 debit. For the mechanics of the charge itself, see DP charges on Zerodha sell transactions ; this entry is about where it is reported and why.

What the contract note records

A contract note is the legally mandated record a broker issues for every trade. It captures the trade itself, instrument, quantity, price, time, order and trade numbers, and the charges that the trade generates. At Zerodha these are delivered digitally; the format and delivery are covered in electronic contract note , Zerodha contract note , and Console contract notes .

The charges that appear on a contract note are all trade-level, meaning they are calculated from the trade’s value or quantity and are a function of the trade:

  • Brokerage, the broker’s own fee for executing the trade. On equity delivery at Zerodha this is Rs 0; on intraday and futures it is 0.03 per cent or Rs 20, whichever is lower; on options it is a flat Rs 20. See Zerodha brokerage structure .
  • Securities Transaction Tax (STT), a statutory tax on the trade value, covered in STT and CTT at Zerodha .
  • Exchange transaction charges, levied by the exchange on the turnover and passed through without markup.
  • The SEBI turnover fee, Rs 10 per crore of turnover, plus GST.
  • Stamp duty, a state levy on the buy side, covered in stamp duty on Zerodha .
  • GST, charged at 18 per cent on the sum of brokerage, exchange transaction charges, the SEBI fee, and IPFT.

Every one of these is computed from the trade. Change the quantity or the price and each of these charges changes with it. That is the defining property of a trade-level charge: it is derived from, and reported against, the trade. The contract note is the document that carries it.

What the DP charge is

The DP charge is a different kind of cost. It is a depository charge, levied not on the trade but on the act of debiting securities from a demat account. When a client sells delivery shares, the shares must move out of the client’s demat account to the clearing corporation for settlement. Zerodha, acting as a depository participant of CDSL , submits the instruction that debits the account. That debit instruction is what carries the charge.

As of 19 June 2026 the charge is Rs 15.34 per scrip on a delivery sell, made up of a Rs 3.5 CDSL fee, a Rs 9.5 Zerodha fee, and Rs 2.34 of GST charged at 18 per cent on the Rs 13 combined fee (zerodha.com/charges, 19 June 2026). It is flat per ISIN per day. A client selling one share of a company and a client selling ten thousand shares of the same company pay the identical Rs 15.34, because the charge is on the debit instruction, not on the quantity. Sell three different scrips on one day and three separate DP charges of Rs 15.34 apply. The full mechanics are in DP charges on Zerodha sell transactions .

This is the structural fact that explains everything about where the charge appears. The DP charge has no relationship to the trade’s value. It does not scale with price or quantity. It is triggered by a demat debit, which is a depository event, not a trade event. A trade can even produce no DP charge at all, an intraday sell debits nothing from the demat account, while a single corporate-action-related debit can produce one with no trade behind it.

Why a depository charge cannot sit on the contract note

The contract note is built to report the economics of a trade. Its charge lines are all trade-level, and each is computed from the trade. The DP charge breaks that mould in two ways, and either one alone would keep it off the contract note.

First, it is not computed from the trade. The contract note’s charge engine works from price and quantity. The DP charge ignores both; it is a fixed Rs 15.34 per scrip. There is no field on a trade document for a charge that has no relationship to the trade’s value.

Second, the levy is on a different event. The trade is one event, executed on the exchange and settled through the clearing corporation . The demat debit is a separate event, an instruction Zerodha sends to CDSL as a depository participant. The DP charge attaches to that second event. A single day’s contract note may cover several trades in the same scrip; the DP charge is still one charge for the one demat debit that settles them. The mapping between trades and DP charges is not one-to-one, which is another reason the charge cannot live on a per-trade document.

There is also a timing reason. The trade and the demat debit do not happen at the same instant. The trade executes on the trade date; the demat debit happens as part of the settlement cycle. The contract note is finalised for the trade date. The DP charge crystallises with the demat debit, which is why it is posted to the ledger on its own schedule rather than folded into the contract note. This same separation is what produces the well-known DP charge on BTST trades , where a client sells before the shares have been credited, and the DP charge still applies on the eventual demat debit.

Because of all this, the DP charge is treated like any other ledger entry that is not a trade charge: it is posted directly to the funds ledger. It sits alongside other non-trade items there, the catalogue of which is in Zerodha hidden charges , though the DP charge is fully disclosed and not hidden in any real sense; it is simply reported in a different place from where many clients first look.

Where to find the DP charge

The DP charge is on the funds ledger, not the contract note. The funds ledger is the running statement of every credit and debit to a client’s account, and it is accessible in Console , Zerodha’s reporting back office. The charge appears there as a single line item of Rs 15.34 per scrip, typically dated around the settlement of the delivery sell that triggered it.

To reconcile a sell against its DP charge:

  1. Open the funds ledger or statement in Console for the relevant date range.
  2. Look for a debit of Rs 15.34 per scrip sold, posted around the settlement date of the sell.
  3. If multiple scrips were sold on the same day, expect one Rs 15.34 line per ISIN, not one combined figure.
  4. Cross-check against the contract note for the trade itself, which carries the brokerage and statutory charges but not the DP charge.

A client who searches the contract note for the DP charge and does not find it has not been overcharged or undercharged; they are looking in the wrong document. The contract note answers what did the trade cost in trade-level terms. The funds ledger answers what hit my account in total, and that total includes the depository charge. Reading the two together gives the complete picture of a delivery sell’s cost.

A note on what does and does not trigger it

Because the DP charge follows the demat debit, it applies only where a demat debit occurs:

  • It applies on a delivery sell (CNC), where shares leave the demat account.
  • It applies on an off-market transfer out of the demat account.
  • It does not apply on intraday equity (MIS), which debits nothing from the demat account.
  • It does not apply on futures and options, which carry no demat debit.
  • It does not apply on a buy, which credits the demat account rather than debiting it.

This is the same logic that keeps the charge off the contract note, viewed from the other side. The contract note exists for every trade; the DP charge exists only for demat debits. The two sets do not coincide, so the charge cannot live on the trade document. It lives where the debit lives: on the ledger.

See also

External references

References

  1. SEBI (Depositories and Participants) Regulations, 2018.
  2. CDSL schedule of charges for depository participants.
  3. SEBI Master Circular for Stock Brokers, contract note requirements.
  4. Zerodha charges page, zerodha.com/charges (accessed 19 June 2026).

Related articles

Frequently asked questions

Why is the DP charge not on my contract note?
The contract note records a trade and the charges that attach to the trade itself: brokerage, STT, exchange transaction charges, the SEBI turnover fee, stamp duty, and GST. The DP charge is not a trade-level charge. It is a depository charge that Zerodha levies as a CDSL depository participant when your demat account is debited to deliver the sold shares. Because it attaches to the demat debit and not to the trade, it is posted separately to your funds ledger rather than printed on the contract note.
Where can I see the DP charge on Zerodha?
The DP charge appears on your funds ledger and in Console, usually as a single line item of Rs 15.34 per scrip dated around the settlement of your delivery sell. It is not on the contract note. If you sold more than one scrip on the same day, you will see one DP charge per ISIN sold.
How much is the Zerodha DP charge and what is it made of?
As of 19 June 2026 the DP charge is Rs 15.34 per scrip on a delivery sell, made up of Rs 3.5 CDSL fee, Rs 9.5 Zerodha fee, and Rs 2.34 GST charged at 18 per cent on the Rs 13 combined fee. It is flat per ISIN per day and does not vary with the quantity or value sold.
Does the DP charge apply to intraday or F&O trades?
No. The DP charge applies only when shares are debited from your demat account, which happens on a delivery sell. Intraday equity positions and futures and options positions do not debit your demat account, so no DP charge applies to them.

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