Funds & Tax: Ledger and statements

Why this page is structured this way: A client sees five or six documents that all claim to describe the same money and the same shares, and they rarely tie up on first reading. The page starts with the artefact map, teaches the ledger line by line, walks outward to the documents the broker does not issue, and ends with the reconciliation order an operations desk follows. Broker-side format and retention rules live in the ECN and investor-servicing deep dive; this is the client-facing and reconciliation view.

TL;DR

• The ledger is the broker’s book of the client, not the market’s. It is a running debit-credit account maintained under the books-and-records obligations consolidated in the Master Circular for Stock Brokers — SEBI/HO/MIRSD/MIRSD-PoD/P/CIR/2025/90. Securities appear in it only as money, never as quantities.
• Four broker-issued artefacts, two depository-issued. Broker: contract note cum tax invoice, daily margin statement, funds-and-securities ledger, periodic statement of accounts. Depository: the DP transaction / holding statement and the Consolidated Account Statement.
• CAS timelines were rationalised in February 2025. Under SEBI/HO/MRD/PoD1/CIR/P/2025/16 (14 February 2025, effective 14 May 2025) [not yet in index] AMCs and MF-RTAs send common-PAN data by the 5th day from month end; depositories dispatch monthly e-CAS by the 12th and physical CAS by the 15th. Half-yearly data lands by 8 April / 8 October, e-CAS by the 18th, physical by the 21st. See Circulars — SEBI other.
• CAS consolidates on PAN, and only one depository sends it — the one holding the earlier-opened demat account (CDSL CAS FAQ).
• The DP statement is mandated separately from CAS. Chapter 16 of the CDSL DP Operating Instructions, March 2026 edition requires a statement at each month end where there was even one transaction, with annual or half-yearly holding statements otherwise, under Regulation 60 of the SEBI (Depositories and Participants) Regulations, 2018.
• The quarterly statement of accounts is a running-account artefact, not an accounting one — see Payout and running account.

Conceptual overview

A retail client’s money and securities sit in four custodies at once. Un-utilised cash sits in the broker’s upstreamed client nodal bank account chain, reported to the clearing corporation daily (see client funds upstreaming). Margin collateral sits pledged at a depository in favour of the broker’s client-securities-margin account. Delivered shares sit in the client’s own beneficial-owner account. And the claim the client has on the broker — the net of everything bought, sold, charged, funded and paid out — exists only in the broker’s ledger.

That asymmetry is why this document set exists. The ledger is the broker’s arithmetic; the depository statement is the depository’s; the CAS is the depository’s plus the mutual-fund registrars’, keyed on PAN rather than on the broker relationship. None is a superset of the others: a client who sold shares yesterday sees the securities debit in the DP statement on the pay-in date and the money credit in the ledger on the pay-out date, and a client who bought a mutual fund in statement-of-account mode sees it in CAS but never in the DP statement at all. Every dispute reduces to one of four questions: is a trade missing, is a charge wrong, is a corporate-action credit late, or is the client reading the wrong document.

1. Regulatory framework

• SEBI/HO/MIRSD/MIRSD-PoD/P/CIR/2025/90 (April 2025, Master Circular for Stock Brokers, successor to SEBI/HO/MIRSD/POD-1/P/CIR/2024/118) — books of account, client ledger, contract-note and margin-statement issuance, running-account settlement.
• SEBI/HO/MRD/PoD1/CIR/P/2025/16 (14 February 2025) [not yet in index] — revises Paras 1.24.5 and 1.24.12 of Chapter 1 of the Master Circular for Depositories dated 3 December 2024 to set CAS data-supply and dispatch timelines.
• CIR/MRD/DP/31/2014 (12 November 2014) [not yet in index] — the founding CAS mandate; first CAS issued March 2015 for February 2015 transactions.
• MRD/DoP/Dep/Cir-27/2004 (16 August 2004) [not yet in index] — permits digitally signed electronic statements under the Information Technology Act, 2000, as deemed compliance with Regulation 43 of the 2018 Regulations.
• SEBI (Depositories and Participants) Regulations, 2018, Regulations 60 and 66(1)(c) — statutory hook for CDSL DP Operating Instructions Chapter 16.
• NSE/INSP/61999 (13 May 2024) — contract-note format; the tax-invoice half reconciles to the charge lines in the ledger.
• SEBI/HO/MIRSD/MIRSD-PoD1/P/CIR/2025/1 (6 January 2025) — refund for clients who have not traded in the last 30 days, forcing a ledger movement outside the quarterly cycle.

2. The artefact set at a glance

Artefact	Issued by	Trigger	Cadence	Default channel
Contract note cum tax invoice	Broker	Any trade on the day	Per trading day with activity, within 24 hours	Email plus SMS link
Daily margin statement	Broker	Open position or collateral	Every trading day	Email
Funds and securities ledger	Broker	Continuous	On demand	Portal / app
Statement of accounts	Broker	Running-account settlement	Quarterly, or monthly if elected	Email
Annual global / tax statement	Broker	Financial-year close	Once a year	Email / portal
DP transaction statement	Depository Participant	Any demat debit or credit	Monthly where a transaction occurred	e-statement, physical on opt-out
DP holding statement	Depository Participant	Nil-transaction account	Annual (nil balance) or half-yearly (credit balance)	Email
Consolidated Account Statement	Depository	Any demat or MF-folio transaction	Monthly, else half-yearly	e-CAS, physical on opt-out

The ledger is not a statement

The running ledger and the periodic statement of accounts are different artefacts with different purposes. The ledger is a continuous accounting record the broker must maintain and make available; the statement of accounts is a periodic communication tied to the running-account settlement obligation and carries prescribed content including the retained amount and the basis of retention. A client asking for “my statement” almost always wants the ledger.

3. Reading a ledger

A client funds ledger is a running account in the broker’s books where a credit increases what the broker owes the client and a debit reduces it. Because the client is a creditor of the broker, the convention feels inverted to anyone used to a bank passbook: a purchase of shares is a debit, and a pay-out to the client’s bank is also a debit.

3.1 Column set

Field	Type	Length	Mandatory	Source system	Destination system(s)	Notes
voucher_date	date	8	Yes	Back office	Portal, statement of accounts	For trade entries equals trade date
settlement_date	date	8	No	Back office	Portal	Pay-in / pay-out date; blank for house vouchers
voucher_no	alphanumeric	20	Yes	Back office	Portal, audit trail	Unique per branch per financial year
voucher_type	code	4	Yes	Back office	Portal	Journal, receipt, payment, contra, bill
segment	code	4	Yes	Back office	Portal	CM, FO, CD, COM, MF, DP
narration	text	200	Yes	Back office	Portal, statement	Must name the scrip or charge head
reference	alphanumeric	30	No	OMS / back office	Portal	Contract-note number, bank UTR, pledge reference
debit_amount	decimal	15,2	Conditional	Back office	Portal, statement	Exactly one of debit / credit populated
credit_amount	decimal	15,2	Conditional	Back office	Portal, statement	—
running_balance	decimal	15,2	Yes	Back office	Portal	Negative means the client owes the broker
balance_marker	code	2	Yes	Back office	Portal	Dr or Cr against the running balance

3.2 What each line means

Ledger line	What happened	Where to verify
Bill for purchase, debit	Net obligation for the day’s buys in a segment, inclusive of brokerage and statutory charges	Contract note for that trade date
Bill for sale, credit	Net receivable after charges	Contract note for that trade date
Receipt, credit	Funds received from the client’s own bank account	Bank statement; see Payin rails
Payment, debit	Pay-out to the registered bank account	See Payout and running account
Delayed payment charge, debit	Interest on a debit balance carried past the pay-in obligation	See Delayed payment charges
DP charge, debit	Per-debit-instruction charge on a sale, plus annual maintenance charge	DP tariff sheet and DP transaction statement
Margin funding interest, debit	Interest on the funded portion of an MTF position	MTF deep dive
Dividend, credit	Only where the broker received it for the client — directly credited dividends produce no ledger line	Bank statement; see Corporate actions
Auction / close-out, debit	Short-delivery consequence	Short delivery and auction

4. Funds statement versus holding statement

The funds statement is the money-only view of the ledger and answers “how much can I withdraw”. The withdrawable figure is not the ledger credit balance — it is that balance less margin blocked against open positions, less unsettled obligations, less the retained amount under the running-account framework. Both numbers are correct and both must be shown.

The holding statement exists in two inconsistent flavours a support agent must keep apart. The broker’s holding view is a back-office position construction: shares owned, pledged for margin, bought today but not yet delivered, sold today but not yet debited. The DP holding statement is the depository’s custody record: free, pledged, locked-in and frozen balances, and nothing about T-day trades.

Freeze status is visible on the statement

Where a beneficial-owner account or a specific ISIN balance is frozen, the freeze status is displayed in the depository’s BO-ISIN inquiry screens and on the transaction / holding statement, per Clause 13.5.4 of the CDSL DP Operating Instructions. Point a client whose sale was rejected at the statement’s freeze marker before opening a trade-rejection investigation. Freeze can be set by the beneficial owner, by the DP under a statutory order or lien, or by the depository — including the KRA-validation freezes circulated under CDSL/OPS/DP/POLCY/2026/562 and NSDL/POLICY/2026/0119.

5. Depository statement of accounts

Chapter 16 of the CDSL DP Operating Instructions sets the DP-side obligation, and the mechanics matter because the DP is usually the broker itself.

The beneficial owner elects a frequency at account opening from daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly; whatever the election, the DP must send a statement at least once at each month end where there was even a single transaction. Accounts with zero balance and nil transactions for a year get at least one annual holding statement by email; accounts with a credit balance but no transactions get a half-yearly one. The client may always elect physical form in writing (Annexure 16.1 consent format), and a withdrawal of email consent obliges physical dispatch from then on. The main DP, not a branch, must print and dispatch physical statements and retain proof of dispatch. Annexure 16.2 is the depository-generated file format, and every field specified there must appear in what the DP sends.

Two carve-outs: where the depository itself sends the transaction statement, CAS and holding statement directly, the DP is relieved of the duty (Clause 16.7.3, reading CIR/MRD/DP/31/2014 Clauses 13–15 with the Rights and Obligations document); and banking clients holding government securities receive a weekly holding statement as on every Friday, detailing each day’s holdings, to support daily Statutory Liquidity Ratio computation.

6. Consolidated Account Statement

CAS is the one artefact keyed to the investor rather than the relationship. It merges demat transactions and holdings across both depositories with mutual-fund units held in statement-of-account form at the MF registrars.

CAS type	Data from AMCs / MF-RTAs	e-CAS dispatch	Physical CAS dispatch
Monthly (any transaction in any demat account or MF folio)	Within 5 days from month end	Within 12 days from month end	Within 15 days from month end
Half-yearly (no transaction anywhere)	On or before 8 April and 8 October	On or before 18 April and 18 October	On or before 21 April and 21 October

Before the February 2025 revision the data window was three days and the dispatch window ten days from month end for all CAS.

Question	Answer
Basis of consolidation	PAN; for joint holdings, PAN of the first holder plus the pattern of holding
Which depository sends it	The one holding the earlier-opened demat account; changeable on request via the DP of the issuing depository
Opting out	Permitted by informing any DP, which records it in the depository system
Included	All demat transactions across both depositories, plus MF purchases, redemptions, switches, dividend accruals, SIP / SWP / STP entries, bonus and merger events as supplied by the MF-RTAs
Excluded	MF units held only in demat form — the DP transaction statement covers those
e-CAS password and duplicates	PAN of the sole or first holder in capitals; duplicates downloadable from the depository’s CAS tab

PANs with MF folios but no demat account receive their CAS from the AMC or MF-RTA, not from a depository.

7. Reconciliation order

1. Establish the as-of date and the document. A CAS dated the 12th reflects the previous month end.
2. Segment the ledger to one segment and one exchange; cross-segment netting in a consolidated view is the commonest source of apparent error.
3. Tie the bill to the contract note for that date and segment. If they agree, it is a charge dispute and the tax-invoice half carries the break-up.
4. Tie receipts and payments to bank references, and securities movements to the DP statement — a missing purchase credit is a pay-out question, since the credit arrives from the clearing corporation, not the broker pool (see direct payout to demat).
5. Check corporate-action timing, then freeze, pledge and lock-in markers before concluding a balance is missing, and tie the quarter’s closing balance to the next statement of accounts.

8. Alternatives

Option A — broker ledger and app holdings	Option B — DP statement / CAS	When to pick which	Who uses what
Real-time, includes T-day trades and money	End-of-day custody truth, no money, no T-day trades	Ledger for “what do I owe / what can I withdraw”; DP statement for “what do I own”	Traders and support desks live in the ledger; auditors, transmission and closure ops live in the DP statement
Broker-generated, disputable against the broker	Depository-generated, independent of the broker	Use the depository artefact whenever the dispute is with the broker	Investor-grievance cases
No mutual funds in statement-of-account form	CAS includes them	CAS for a whole-portfolio view	Tax filing and net-worth statements

Practical notes

• [gotcha] A client holding demat accounts at both depositories receives CAS from only one — the depository of the earlier-opened account, not the larger holding and not the one linked to the current broker. Tickets titled “CAS is missing my other demat” are almost always this.
• [gotcha] Mutual-fund units bought in demat mode never appear as MF folio rows in CAS; they appear as ISIN balances in the demat portion, so a client comparing CAS against an AMC statement finds the same investment described two ways.
• [industry practice] Most retail ledgers default the segment filter to “all”, producing a consolidated running balance that matches nothing the client was ever sent. Defaulting to a single segment, or showing per-segment closing balances above the consolidated one, removes a measurable share of support volume. [industry practice — unverified]
• [cost optimization] DP transaction charges are levied per debit instruction, not per sale order, so selling the same ISIN in five tranches within one settlement generally incurs one debit while splitting sells across settlement dates pays per date. [industry practice — unverified]
• [gotcha] Annual maintenance charges must not be levied on accounts in “to be closed” status holding only illiquid, suspended or delisted securities; CDSL circulates the DP-wise lists in its billing folder, most recently under CDSL/OPS/DP/POLCY/2026/611 (3 September 2026). Wrongly levied, the charge appears as a DP debit in the client ledger and becomes a recurring grievance head.
• [industry practice] Basic Services Demat Account eligibility is recomputed quarterly by the depository from holding value and cross-depository first-holder checks — CDSL circulated the June 2026 cohort under CDSL/OPS/DP/POLCY/2026/433. BSDA status changes the maintenance-charge line without any client action, which surprises clients.

Cross-references

• Deep Dive: ECN and investor-servicing artefacts — format, signature and retention rules for the broker-issued artefacts.
• Funds & Tax: Payout and running account — the cycle behind the statement of accounts and the retention disclosure.
• Funds & Tax: Corporate actions — clocks the ledger does not control.
• Funds & Tax: Demat servicing — freeze markers, DIS mechanics, closure statements.
• Funds & Tax: Tax reporting — how the ledger feeds the tax P&L and capital-gains reports.
• Deep Dive: Direct pay-out to client demat — why a purchase credit arrives from the clearing corporation.
• Deep Dive: Client funds upstreaming — where the ledger credit balance physically sits.
• Deep Dive: T+0 and T+1 settlement — trade date versus settlement date.
• Lifecycle: Voluntary closure — the quarter-to-date and final statements a closing client receives.
• Field Atlas — Section AC (running-account settlement) — settlement and retention field destinations.
• Field Atlas — Computed ECN tax fields — the charge heads that become ledger debits.
• Integration DAG — recurring cycles — statement generation in the batch graph.
• Broker process narrative — the end-of-day sequence that writes the day’s vouchers.
• Circulars — CDSL and Circulars — NSDL — depository instruments cited above.

Verified through

2026-09-11

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