MAPIN - Markets Participants and Investors Identification Number

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MAPIN - Markets Participants and Investors Identification Number

Now SEBI needs your fingerprint before you can BUY/SELL shares or make any investments in the Market!

Are investors criminals?​

After PAN (Permanent Account Number), comes another identification for investorsthe MAPIN (Markets Participants and Investors Identification Number). This one requires your finger print for registration.

In future you would not be allowed to buy and sell equity shares or mutual funds at your will. The stock broker would let you carry on your transaction only if your finger print is registered with Sebi. Even your prior investments will have no respite if the amount is more than Rs 1 lakh.


At present PAN is a must for all financial transactions above Rs 50,000. But Sebi has decided to keep a closer tab on the Indian investor on its own and hence MAPIN.

Unlike other identification numbers, MAPIN requires the applicant to provide his/her finger print at the time of registration. Sebi has authorised around six broking and financial intermediaries like Karvy and Kotak Securities for issuing MAPIN for a small one-time fee of Rs 300. Since the machinery involved is slightly expensive and needs to be imported, there are only handful of authorised agents in the country now.

Sebi has recently extended it to December, 31, 2005. Though there is enough time for the deadline, it would not be a bad idea for investors to get one as quickly as it would be impossible to carry on any high value transaction without MAPIN from next year.

The figure of Rs 1 lakh may look huge now, but it may not be in future if the current stock market trend continues. Already, shares of a good number of companies are in the region of Rs 1,000. If you want to sell or buy them in 100s, MAPIN would be a must.

Also, the FM P Chidambaram has in his Budget allowed investment in tax saving equity funds up to Rs 1 lakh, so getting a MAPIN before you plan your investments would be a good idea.
 

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