What Is a Basic Services Demat Account (BSDA)?

A basic services demat account is a demat account with the same holding rights as any other and a much smaller annual bill. SEBI created it so that small investors are not charged a full maintenance fee on a nearly empty account. The rules were rewritten in June 2024 and changed again with effect from 31 March 2026, so a basic services demat account today works differently from what most write-ups still describe. This page sets out the current eligibility test, the charge slabs, and the 2026 changes.

Who is eligible for a basic services demat account?

Paragraph 2.1 of SEBI's 28 June 2024 circular sets three conditions, and all three must hold:

1. The individual has, or proposes to have, only one demat account where they are the sole or first holder.
2. The individual has only one BSDA in their name across all depositories.
3. The value of securities held in the account does not exceed 10 lakh rupees, counting debt and other than debt securities together, at any point of time.

Two things follow that people often get wrong. The eligibility is per individual and not per depository participant, so a second demat account anywhere in NSDL or CDSL breaks it. And the 10 lakh figure is a single combined ceiling, not two separate limits for debt and equity.

What does a BSDA cost?

The annual maintenance charge is capped by slab:

Outside the AMC, a BSDA is treated at par with a regular account. SEBI states explicitly that DPs shall not levy higher charges to a BSDA for other services. Electronic statements are free. A physical statement may be charged at a fee not exceeding 25 rupees per statement. If the value of holdings crosses the threshold on any date, the DP may charge regular account rates from that date onwards.

What changed on 31 March 2026?

SEBI's circular dated 24 December 2025 replaced three paragraphs of the 2024 circular with effect from 31 March 2026. Four changes matter to a holder:

• Two categories now drop out of the threshold. Delisted securities and Zero Coupon Zero Principal bonds are not counted when the 10 lakh limit is computed. Suspended securities were already excluded.
• Illiquid securities are valued at the last closing price. The general rule remains the daily closing price or NAV, with the last traded price where no price is available, and face value for unlisted securities other than mutual fund units.
• Eligibility is reassessed every quarter. The 2024 text ran the reassessment at the end of every billing cycle. It is now the end of every quarter.
• Consent moved off email. Opting for a regular account instead of a BSDA now needs active consent through an authenticated and verifiable channel specified by the depositories, rather than an email from the registered email id.

The exclusion list is the change with the most practical bite. An investor left holding a delisted scrip whose paper value pushed them over 10 lakh rupees was paying a full AMC on the strength of a holding they could not sell.

How does a DP decide whether your account is a BSDA?

The default runs towards the BSDA, not away from it. A DP shall open only a BSDA for an eligible beneficial owner unless that holder specifically consents to a regular account, and it shall reassess all existing holders quarterly and convert the eligible ones unless they consent to stay regular. So a BSDA is not something an investor applies for so much as something a DP must give an eligible investor by default.

The valuation is done by the DP, on its own reading of the closing price or NAV of each holding. That is why the holding statement matters: it is the document that shows which securities the DP counted. A consolidated account statement shows the same holdings across depositories, which is the other half of the one-BSDA test.

What a BSDA does not change

It does not change the rights attached to the securities. The holder remains the beneficial owner on the depository's register, with the same voting and corporate action entitlements. Dematerialisation and rematerialisation work the same way. Nomination, pledge and transmission rules are identical. The only thing that is smaller is the annual maintenance charge, and the conditions attached to keeping it.

So a basic services demat account is a charge structure, not a lesser class of ownership. Check the three eligibility conditions, then check what your DP counted towards the 10 lakh figure, because after 31 March 2026 two categories of security no longer belong in that sum.

Flock reports the filings themselves, each one dated and linked to its source. What any disclosure means for your money is your call to make. Not investment advice.