The Securities and Exchange Board of India is likely to call for the suspension of the terminals of brokers who fail to pay at least 50 per cent of the turnover tax by the March 31, 2003, deadline.
On the Bombay Stock Exchange, around a fifth of the members risk having their terminals switched off as they are not in a position to pay the turnover tax.
The impact on the National Stock Exchange is expected to be harsher. Nearly half the members are likely to face the axe.
This could also have an impact on the derivatives markets because a large number of NSE members were given membership in the futures and options segment ahead of the Sebi order that stipulated membership on the derivatives segment would not be allowed unless these brokers cleared their turnover dues.
Sebi sources said brokers had been given a lot of time in which they should have been able to mobilise the money required to pay their dues.
Though the brokers were legally bound to pay the fees as per the regulations -- laid out in a Sebi circular in March 2002 -- Sebi has said that brokers who have not paid their dues should pay at least 50 per cent of the principal due by March 2003, and give an undertaking to pay the remaining fees within two years along with interest.