An investor may choose to port from one stockbroker to another for various reasons, like the services offered, ease of doing transactions, brokerage or research services offered. Sometimes, investors tend to open different demat accounts over a period of time, making it increasingly difficult to keep track of these accounts separately. Consolidating shareholdings into a single demat account helps investors to view all their stocks in one place and provides a comprehensive picture of returns on investment. It is possible to transfer shares from one demat account to another either offline or online.
In the case of the offline method, you would have to manually fill up a 'delivery instruction slip' (DIS), sign it, and hand it over to your depository participant (DP) who is also the broker in most cases. Your DP will then process the request and effect the transfer of securities from your account.
During the 2020 lock-down, such transfer of securities would take several weeks for investors who have signed up with brokers who do not offer ‘easiest’ facility. On the other hand, the online method is extremely easy and takes just a few minutes to complete.
The evolution of the Indian capital market has seen several enhancements during the past few years—a result of innovative usage of new technologies. In the reduced settlement cycle era, investors require updated demat account information at a much faster pace than ever before. In order to facilitate Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL) demat account-holders to easily adapt to the fast reducing settlement cycle, CDSL introduced easiest, its Internet-enabled services to empower a demat account-holder in managing his securities ‘anytime-anywhere’ in an efficient and convenient manner, in a secure environment. The facility allows you to monitor the details of your demat account to ascertain whether the trades you have executed are reflecting your ownership or not.
‘easiest’ is an acronym for 'electronic access to securities information and execution of secured transactions'. It is a portal that allows you to access your demat account through the internet. In addition investors can also conveniently and quickly effect transfer of shares through the portal.
One needs to register on this platform
using the link and provide existing demat account details. CDSL allows two types of transfer within e
asiest. First is the 'Trusted account' mode which allows a client to transfer to up to four pre-designated demat accounts. Once the account is successfully added after 24 hours, one can transfer securities from the old demat account to the new one.
Once signed up, it becomes an entirely online process without the need to send a request to broker or DP. Such transfers—to trusted accounts—can be done using a PIN (personal identification number).
The other is the 'account of choice' option that allows a client to transfer shares to any account of their choice. However, to enable the account of choice option, the client will have to procure a digital signature and register it with his easiest login. In the "Trusted account" mode, one can't transfer shares from CDSL to National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL); it is available only in the 'account of choice' mode.
Fees and Taxation
The broker may charge a stated fee for processing the transfer request. However, if the old account is being closed and entire holdings are being ported to a new demat account with another DP, no fee will be charged.
This transfer of shares does not amount to change of beneficial ownership and does not amount to capital gains on transfer. Transfer of securities to an account other than yours can attract taxes. Typically, when you sell shares, only the gains are taxed. But when you transfer shares without any consideration to someone else, it would be considered as a gift. It is the recipient who has to pay tax on gift, not the donor.
Here Is the Step-by-step Process:
1) Enter your 8- digit DP ID followed by your 8-digit demat Client ID or BO ID
2) You will get an OTP to your registered mobile number:
3) Enter account details, select the "Trusted account" checkbox and click on continue:
4) Enter Trusted Account (This is a CDSL account where you want to transfer shares).
5) Grouping - You can add any BO IDs available in the pre-approved list. These will be your CDSL demat accounts with other depository participants. However, if no pre-approved accounts exist, you can skip this step.
6) Your registration is now complete:
Once your registration is complete, the validation will take 24-48 working hours, after which you will be able transfer shares.
Here are some benefits of using the CDSL easiest portal:
1. Access to your demat account: With the CDSL easiest portal, you can access your demat account at any time and from anywhere in the world. You can view, download, and print transaction and holding statements of all transactions for the past 365 days.
2. Single point login: Thanks to CDSL easiest, even if you possess multiple demat accounts with CDSL, you can access all of them under a single roof with just one login.
3. Transfer of securities: As you have already seen above, you can easily initiate the online transfer of securities through CDSL easiest. You no longer have to do it manually by filling and submitting DIS to your depository participant.
4. Maximum security: All of the transactions that you make through CDSL easiest are safe, secure, and encrypted. Even the transfer of securities can only be made after multiple checks and authorisations on your part.
5. Monitor: You can monitor corporate announcements for the securities held in your demat account through your easiest login. You can also add ISINs not held in your demat account, but wish to monitor corporate announcements for such ISINs.
6. Freeze/ unfreeze option: There is an option called freeze and unfreeze in easiest account which are very important for every demat account holder who has already given the Power of Attorney (PoA) to the stock broker/relatives to protect their holdings and secure the misuse of Power of Attorney (PoA).
If you are an investor who does not trade regularly, CDSL easiest also offers an option to freeze the account for debit or credit of securities. A client can also specify a stock or the number of stocks that he wants to freeze. Once you freeze your demat account or a stock, the broker cannot transfer securities out of it. The charge for this are capped at Rs125 for each instruction.
If an investor has a long-term portfolio, where he/she does not sell stocks then the investor can freeze debit from this account. In this case, the stocks he/she buys would be credited to the account, but he/she will not be able to sell any. In many of the
recent stock broking scams, brokers found loopholes in regulations and debited clients’ account to transfer securities to the demat accounts of their own. Of course, the option to freeze the demat account is also available with the broker (or DP) without signing up for CDSL’s e
asiest service. But if you do it through the broker, it takes time to process this request. When an investor signs up for CDSL’s online service, investors can freeze or unfreeze the account whenever they want.
National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL), too, has similar options under its service called SPEED-e. For password-based transfers, the client can add up to six accounts. To transfer to any other account, the investor will need a digital signature and a smart card that NSDL issues.
NSDL and CDSL charge for both the options. The PIN or password-based transfer to pre-notified accounts is cheaper, as some brokers levy a Rs120 fee as annual maintenance charge. The service, which allows transfer to any demat account using digital signature is costlier, with some brokers charging as much as Rs1,000 as yearly maintenance.
