What it costs to buy and sell shares on NEPSE: broker commission, SEBON fee, and DP charge
The real cost of a NEPSE trade: the 0.36% to 0.24% broker commission slabs, the 0.015% SEBON fee, the Rs 25 DP charge, and the 7.5% capital gains tax, worked on Rs 1 lakh.
A friend sold shares last month for a Rs 30,000 profit and was pleased, until the money that landed in his account was visibly short of what he'd expected. He texted to ask where the rest went. The answer was four line items he'd never looked at: broker commission, a SEBON fee, a DP charge, and capital gains tax. None is large on its own. Together they're the gap between the price on your screen and the number in your bank.
Most NEPSE investors know the broker takes a cut and stop there. The full cost of a trade is a small stack, and it's worth seeing whole, because on small trades it's a meaningful slice and on a quick in-and-out it can swallow most of a modest gain. Here's every charge, with a worked Rs 1 lakh round trip at the end.
The four charges on every trade
Two of these you pay on both the buy and the sell. One you pay only when you sell at a profit. The structure:
| Charge | When | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Broker commission | Buy and sell | 0.243% to 0.36% of value |
| SEBON regulatory fee | Buy and sell | 0.015% of value |
| DP (depository) charge | Per company, per settlement | Flat Rs 25 |
| Capital gains tax | Sell, on profit only | 7.5% / 10% (individuals) |
The broker commission isn't entirely the broker's. It's split roughly 79% to the broker, 20% to NEPSE, and a sliver to SEBON, but you see it as one line. The other charges are exactly what they say.
Broker commission: the slab table
This is the biggest of the costs, and it's tiered, so a bigger trade pays a lower rate. SEBON cut these rates 10% in Jestha 2081 (May 2024), and the figures below have been in force since:
| Trade value | Commission |
|---|---|
| Up to Rs 50,000 | 0.36% |
| Rs 50,001 to Rs 5 lakh | 0.33% |
| Rs 5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh | 0.306% |
| Rs 20 lakh to Rs 1 crore | 0.27% |
| Above Rs 1 crore | 0.243% |
A note on the decimals: the exact rates are 0.306% and 0.243% in the middle and top tiers, but many brokers round them to 0.31% and 0.24% on their rate cards. The difference is a few rupees, not worth losing sleep over. There's also a published Rs 10 minimum per transaction that only matters on tiny trades. Since 2025 SEBON treats these as ceiling rates, so a broker may legally charge less, though most still bill the full slab.
The slab applies to the whole trade value, not in bands. A Rs 1 lakh trade pays 0.33% on the full lakh, not 0.36% on the first 50,000 and 0.33% on the rest.
The SEBON fee and the DP charge
These are the small fixed pieces.
The SEBON regulatory fee is 0.015% of the transaction value, on both the buy and the sell. On a Rs 1 lakh trade that's Rs 15. It's collected by your broker and passed to the regulator.
The DP charge is the one that quietly distorts small trades. It's a flat Rs 25 per company, per settlement, levied by CDSC through your broker, and it does not scale with size. On a Rs 5 lakh trade, Rs 25 is a rounding error. On a Rs 2,000 trade, it's over 1% before any commission. This is the single best argument against trading in tiny lots: the fixed charge eats you alive. (Sources disagree on whether the DP charge hits both the buy and the sell or only the sell, so confirm with your own broker.)
Capital gains tax on the sell
The fourth charge appears only when you sell, and only on your profit. Under the FY 2083/84 rates, in force from mid-July 2026, a resident individual pays 7.5% if the shares were held more than a year, 10% if held a year or less; institutions pay 10%, and non-residents face a higher rate. Through FY 2082/83 these were 5% and 7.5%, so the long-term rate rose by half. CDSC deducts the tax at source on settlement, so you never write a separate cheque.
Two mechanics that trip people up: the gain is calculated on the weighted average cost of all your units of that scrip, and bonus shares are valued at par, Rs 100 a share, for cost-basis purposes, not at market price, so a large part of their value is taxable when you sell. For the full rules, the WACC math, and the Rs 40 lakh filing line, read the dedicated capital gains tax on shares post. This post is about the friction; that one is about the tax in full.
A worked Rs 1 lakh round trip
Numbers make it concrete. Buy Rs 1,00,000 of a single company's shares (so one DP charge), hold over a year, and sell at Rs 1,30,000. All figures below are computed from the confirmed rates above.
Buying Rs 1,00,000 (falls in the 0.33% slab):
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Broker commission (0.33%) | Rs 330 |
| SEBON fee (0.015%) | Rs 15 |
| DP charge | Rs 25 |
| Total cost to buy | Rs 370 |
Your real cost basis is Rs 1,00,370, not Rs 1,00,000.
Selling at Rs 1,30,000:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Broker commission (0.33%) | Rs 429 |
| SEBON fee (0.015%) | Rs 19.50 |
| DP charge | Rs 25 |
| Sell-side charges | Rs 473.50 |
Net sale proceeds before tax: Rs 1,29,526. Your taxable gain (proceeds minus the Rs 1,00,370 cost basis) is about Rs 29,156. Capital gains tax at 7.5% (held over a year, the FY 2083/84 long-term rate) is about Rs 2,187, deducted at source.
Add it up: Rs 370 to buy, Rs 473 to sell, Rs 2,187 in tax. Roughly Rs 3,030 of friction on a Rs 30,000 gross gain, or about 10%. That's the honest answer to "where did the rest go." It's not alarming for a long hold, but flip the same shares inside a year, where the rate jumps to 10%, and the bite climbs past Rs 3,750. The faster you trade, the more these costs (and the margin trap if you use leverage) compound against you.
The one-time and account costs
Before any of the above, you need the plumbing, and it's cheap:
- Demat account: about Rs 50 to open, Rs 100 a year to maintain, set by CDSC.
- Mero Share: roughly Rs 50 registration plus a small annual service charge. This is what you use to apply for IPOs and check holdings.
- TMS access: the broker's trading terminal, where you actually place buy and sell orders, usually free to open with a broker account. A demat account only holds shares; it doesn't let you trade. For the account-opening pitfalls, see Mero Share and demat mistakes.
One timing point: NEPSE settles on T+2. Sell on Sunday and the cash reaches you two business days later, not instantly. Plan around that if you're selling to fund something time-sensitive.
What you actually need to know
- Four charges, not one. Commission, SEBON fee, and DP charge on both sides; capital gains tax on the profit when you sell. Budget for all four.
- Small trades pay a hidden premium. The flat Rs 25 DP charge means a Rs 2,000 trade loses a far bigger percentage than a Rs 2 lakh one. Trade in meaningful sizes, not handfuls.
- Holding period changes the tax. Over a year is 7.5% for individuals, a year or less is 10% (FY 2083/84 rates, up from 5% and 7.5%). The faster you churn, the more friction and tax you hand over for the same gain.
Want your own trade costed, including the weighted-average gain and the tax that'll be withheld? Email parjanya57@gmail.com with the buy price, sell price, and dates, and I'll run the round trip.
This post is part of the Nepal Money Basics guide — the investing section.