SEBI Board Meeting: Mutual Fund Fee Cuts and IPO Reform

SEBI Slashes Mutual Fund Costs: Brokerage Fees Halved in Major Market Reset

Highlights

• The 6-Basis-Point Rule: Why Your Mutual Fund Just Got Cheaper

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• Scrapping the Exit Load Extra: SEBI Removes the “Transitory” 5bps Charge

• IPO Speed-Run: Abridged Prospectus and Automated Lock-ins for Faster Listings

• Corporate Debt Relief: HVDLE Threshold Hits ₹5,000 Crore to Ease Compliance

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The thing is, investing in India just got a whole lot leaner.

Actually, the SEBI board met on Wednesday and decided to take a chainsaw to the fees you pay for mutual funds. Specifically, they cut the brokerage cap for the cash market right down the middle—from 12 basis points to just 6.

X happened. The regulator realized investors were being double-charged for the same services.

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And then Y followed. They stripped out statutory levies like GST and STT from the base expense ratio entirely.

Consequently, you’ll finally see exactly what the fund house is pocketing versus what the government is taking (let’s be real, it was about time).

And here’s the kicker. That annoying extra 5 basis points charge on schemes with an exit load?

Basically, it’s dead.

In fact, SEBI scrapped it entirely because it was supposed to be a “temporary” measure from years ago that just never went away.

Instead of a messy bundle, we now have a “Base Expense Ratio” or BER.

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Furthermore, if a fund wants to attract more people, the SEBI chair says they can even go lower than these caps. Actually, the thing is, smaller fund houses are already worried about their margins, but for the retail guy, this is a massive win.

Furthermore, the way companies go public is getting a massive hardware update. Specifically, SEBI is bringing in a “Draft Abridged Prospectus” right at the start of the IPO process.

X happened. Investors were tired of digging through 500-page documents for basic facts.

And then Y followed. A concise, QR-code-ready summary will now be mandatory at the DRHP stage.

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Actually, they even fixed the weird technical glitch with pledged shares.

As a result, shares that are pledged will now be automatically locked in by the system without the issuer having to jump through hoops.

Basically, the rules for stockbrokers are also getting their first real makeover since 1992. In fact, the old 11-chapter rulebook has been binned for a streamlined version that makes stock exchanges the “first-line” regulators.

Furthermore, for the big corporate players, the debt threshold for “High Value” entities just jumped from ₹1,000 crore to ₹5,000 crore.

Consequently, more than 60% of companies will suddenly have a much lighter compliance load.

Instead of a tidy wrap-up, just keep an eye on the April 2026 calendar—that’s when the “cheap” investing era actually kicks in.

The thing is, SEBI is still debating if they should make their own officials disclose their spouses’ stock trades, so that drama is definitely ongoing……

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Content Disclaimer: This report covers the policy decisions made by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) during its board meeting on December 17, 2025. These changes, including the revised Mutual Fund Regulations 2026, are scheduled to take effect on April 1, 2026. All data is based on official SEBI briefings and remains subject to final gazette notification.

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