Will move forward on the international study on cost competitiveness, says new ANMI President Khandelwal

The Association of National Exchanges Members of India (ANMI) will this year focus energies on working towards a reduction in transaction costs and costs of compliances for its members, its new President Anup Khandelwal has said.

“We will also pitch for changes on taxation policies on our stock broker members besides promoting equity culture in the country. As the voice of the capital market, we will work with our regulators to improve their trust in us. We will also improve the use of digital technology among all our associates”, Khandelwal told BusinessLine .

Khandelwal said that ANMI intends to appoint a consultant in the next one or two months to undertake an international study on the cost competitiveness of various securities market jurisdictions around the world.

“We will go ahead with the study. This project had been identified by our National Council. We will pursue it to some finality this year. Whatever we are doing is based on the decision of the national council“, he said.

Asked if he felt that India had high transaction costs on the equities market front vi’s-a-vi’s other markets, Khandelwal said he would comment on the same only after the report of the proposed study gets finalised.

In the recent years, ANMI has been pitching for the reduction in the securities transaction tax (STT) and also restore the facility of treating STT paid by professional traders as a tax paid to be adjusted against the tax on the income from share trading ( business income).

He also indicated that ANMI may this year look to increase awareness among its members on the various aspects of deepening of bond markets.

ANMI will this year also organise webinar series for its members to update them on new technology trends in the functioning of brokers including running of accounting software on the cloud. “We will also try to have a dialogue with hardware vendors so that we can help minimise the costs to our members”, he said.

Khandelwal said that it is crucial for ANMI members, especially small and medium-sized ones, to modernise and adapt to the emerging technology trends. “Every industry has a cycle. It is important for broker members to understand the changing world and adapt to that. New product diversification such as mutual fund, PMS, insurance are also necessary”, he said.

If smaller broking houses don’t change to adapt to the new world, their earnings will reduce, he said. However, both large and medium broking houses will survive, given that they cater to specific segments of the market. “Out of 100, there are 2-3 brokers who are thinking differently and creating a niche for themselves in the market. Such people are able to leave a mark in the industry”, Khandelwal said.

ANMI is an association comprising around 900 stockbrokers from across the country who are members of NSE, BSE, Multi Commodity Exchange and other exchanges having national presence.

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