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Informist, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026

MUMBAI – The pace of growth in fees and charges levied by the Securities and Exchange Board of India on regulated entities slowed down in 2025-26 (Apr-Mar), mainly due to weak growth in regulatory fees from stock exchanges. Data from SEBI's annual report for FY26, released Thursday, showed it imposed total regulatory fees and charges across all regulated entities of INR 25.63 billion, up 9.8% from INR 23.34 billion in FY25. This growth rate in fees was significantly lower than the sharp rise of 26% reported for FY25 in the previous year's annual report.

The drag in SEBI's fees growth came primarily on account of a low 6.5% increase in regulatory fees collected from stock exchanges to INR 13.49 billion for FY26. Fees from stock exchanges are typically the biggest contributor to SEBI's aggregate regulatory fees and charges for a year. Stock exchanges pay SEBI regulatory fees based on the specified slabs of annual turnover in equity cash and equity derivatives segments. The annual turnover for equity futures is defined by SEBI to be traded value in futures contracts, and the annual turnover for equity options is taken to be the notional turnover in options contracts. 

The fees and charges collected by SEBI from regulated market intermediaries and entities include recurring and non-recurring based on whether they are one-time in nature, like registration fees, offer document fees, or annual like the turnover fees on stock exchanges.

The second-largest collection of fees and charges in FY26 was the one-time fees on the initial public offerings prospectus filed by issuers and on offer documents of other issuances in the equity primary market. It sharply rose 27% to INR 3.38 billion for FY26, but the rate of growth was lower than the 2.6 times surge that took place in the previous financial year. There was a frenzy in equity initial public offering in FY25, but that abated in FY26.

The third-largest fees item for FY26 was the fees imposed on custodians of securities that went up to INR 1.49 billion from 1.32 billion. These fees are recurring in nature. Custodians typically operate as service providers to foreign portfolio investors, domestic mutual funds and insurance companies, and other institutional investors, for their holdings in Indian securities.

SEBI also levies registration fees, which are recurring in nature, on the brokers of equity cash and equity derivatives segments of stock exchanges. It was the fourth-largest fee item for FY26, although it fell a sharp 24% to INR 1.46 billion.

On the other hand, the non-recurring registration fees from foreign portfolio investors were INR 1.05 billion for FY26, up significantly from INR 733 million in the previous year. Takeover fees also rose sharply to INR 1.24 billion from INR 873 million, indicating a rise in corporate acquisitions and takeovers during FY26.  End

Reported by Rajesh Gajra

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

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