I highlighted how transaction charges can make intraday trading difficult to break even, and argued that small participants who help sustain a robust, liquid stock market should also be helped. My 2023-03-24 posts gave a specific STT example and a broader estimate that includes other charges.
The cited post said STT was hiked by 25 percent. In its example, an intraday retail trader buying and selling 10 lots of Nifty futures paid Rs 855 in STT, or 1.7 points on each Nifty lot; at 10 trades a day, the trader needed to capture 17 points of a Nifty move daily for STT alone.
I said that including exchange charges, stamp duty, GST, brokerage, and SEBI charges raised the stated break-even requirement to 30 points within daily Nifty volatility at 10 trades/day.
I also said that someone profitable after all those charges pays the maximum income tax rate, and observed that many traders find it hard to be profitable. I did not specify the tax rate or the assumptions behind the charge estimates.