April 6, 2006	Thursday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1427

ISLAMABAD, April 5: In order to encourage investors in the capital market, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday approved substantial reduction in the Central Depository System (CDS) tariff structure. The SECP had asked the Central Depositor Company (CDC) to revise the CDS tariff structure with the main objective to reduce the cost of transacting securities business to encourage investors in the capital market, particularly the small investors.

The SECP had appreciated and thanked the CDC Board for acceding to its request for the downward revision in the CDS tariffs.

According to a statement, in the revised tariff structure, the custody fee had been reduced by 50 per cent and the transaction fee was been reduced by 16.67 per cent.

Accordingly, the revised custody fee on shares was 0.015 per cent per annum and on term finance certificates (TFCs), bonds and units was 0.0125 per cent per annum.

The transaction fee for Investor Account Service (IAS) had been reduced to Rs0.0040 and for other than IAS to Rs0.0020.