Stamp duty on exchange transactions to impact volumes: Kotak

The Maharashtra government's decision to impose a 0.005% stamp duty on all transactions in stock and commodity exchanges is likely to have some impact on volumes, Kotak Mahindra Bank said on Thursday.

"Any tax is bound to have some impact on the behaviour (of trading). But one has to evaluate its impact on volumes," Kotak Mahindra, executive vice-chairman and MD Uday Kotak said.

He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the western region of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The state government, in the 2011-12 budget presented on Wednesday, has proposed a uniform duty structure on all transactions in order to do away with complicated duty collection system.

"At present, transactions are being charged at different stamp duty rates. This makes the collection of duty complicated. So we have proposed to charge a uniform stamp duty of 0.005% on all transactions. This will simplify the levy of duty," Finance Minister Ajit Pawar said in his budget speech.