Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q1 FY 2023 earnings conference call of CDSL India, hosted by Axis Capital Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. Please note that CDSL does not provide specific revenue or earnings guidance. Anything said on this call which reflects CDSL's outlook for the future or which could be construed as forward-looking statement must be reviewed in conjunction with the risks that the company faces. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Anshuman Singh from Axis Capital Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Yeah. Thank you, Jacob. Good morning, everyone. On behalf of Axis Capital, a very warm welcome to the Q1 FY 2023 conference call of CDSL India Limited. We have the management team of CDSL, represented by Mr. Nehal Vora, MD and CEO, Mr. Girish Amesara, CFO, Mr. Sunil Alvares, MD and CEO, CDSL Ventures, Mr. Ram Kumar, Chief of Business Development, Operations and New Projects, Mrs. Nayana Ovalekar, Chief Regulatory Officer, Mr. Vinay Madan, Chief Risk Officer, Mr. Swaroopkumar Gothi, VP, and Mr. Nilesh Kittur, AVP. Without further ado, I would hand over the floor to the management for their opening remarks, post which we can open the floor for Q&A. Thank you. Nehal, sir, over to you, sir.
Okay. Thank you, Anshuman. A very good morning and welcome, everyone. I hope each one of you and your loved ones are safe and healthy. Thank you for joining us today to discuss CDSL's financial results for the first quarter financial year of 2022/2023. As in the previous quarters, we have posted a detailed financial presentation on our website for your reference. I'm joined by the CDSL group's leadership team. We are happy to present the first quarter of the new financial year. Our primary focus in the first quarter of this year remained on maintaining an organic and sustainable growth and providing diversified services. Our services for DPs, investors, and other market participants bring on the promise of making it easier to access markets independently and improve the experience of all market participants.
This is a result of being innovative and using technology to deliver a unique experience. During the quarter, the number of active companies with CDSL as on June 30th, 2022 stood at about 18,798, an increase of 12% from the number of active companies as on June thirtieth of 2021. Further, the value of securities in demat custody with CDSL as on June thirtieth, 2022 stood at about INR 33 lakh crore. This is an increase of about 6% in the value as on June thirtieth, 2021.
CDSL added 55 lakh Beneficial Owner accounts, taking the number of beneficiary accounts to 6.85 crores at the end of the quarter, with a market share of CDSL at about 71% compared to 64% in Q1 of 2021/2022. The growth has been possible because of our focus on technology and CDSL's reach, which covers about 98% of the pin codes in India through over 20,700 service locations. Having said that, while the Indian securities market has increased remarkably over the past few years, only a small minority of the population, 7%, have demat accounts, signifying the great potential for expansion in this area. Simply put, India is a long way from being fully penetrated by the securities market, and a large portion of the population still can have access to the securities market.
We have been following this path for a long time, and our technology has been continually evolving to fit the needs of our various clients and the investors. We are working with the regulator and various other market infrastructure institutions to build various platforms for all market participants. We take a cue from the Honorable Prime Minister's speech earlier this month during the launch of the Digital India platform. The emphasis on technology will enable us to remain part of this transformation which India is witnessing. We aim to leverage our reach and continue a long-term strategy of investing in our technology infrastructure to ensure our investors and customers enjoy best-in-class experience and security while staying consistent with the values of being convenient, dependable, and secure.
As India celebrates the 75th year of independence, while we find ourselves at a crossroad, a crossover, the decision we make today will shape the future we build tomorrow. Further, reflect on our past efforts that we have spent years constructing this future that is defined by our steadfast commitment to a better India, our shared objective to empower every Indian through financial independence, and the opportunity to build a better economy for all Indians. Considering this, our long-term goal at CDSL is not only to grow individually, but to grow collectively as responsible contributors to the growth of our nation. We will also need to learn how to serve our nation in ways that are more effective to achieve the same.
CDSL as a market infrastructure institution will continue to deliver on our promise of making the securities market a convenient and secure place. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our stakeholders, regulators, investors, issuers, the registrar and transfer agents, depository participants, partners, associates and employees who have played an extremely important role in the growth of our company. Now I request our CFO, Shri Girish Amesara, to take you through our financial performance.
Thank you, Nehal Vora. Good morning to everyone. On a YoY performance, the consolidated total income for the quarter ended June 30, 2022 has increased by INR 16 crore, which is 12% increase to an amount of INR 145.49 crore compared to INR 129.79 crore for the quarter, June 2021. The net profit on a consolidated basis for the quarter is achieved at INR 57.61 crore as against net profit of INR 63.99 crore for June 2021. The total income on a standalone basis for the quarter ended June 2022 has increased by INR 35.83 crore, which is 29% increase to an amount of INR 157.52 crore as against INR 121.69 crore for the quarter June 2021.
The net profit on a standalone basis for the quarter ended June 2022 is at INR 89.10 crore as against INR 73.30 crore for the quarter ended June 2021. Now I shall request Shri Sunil Alvares to give an update about the operation of wholly owned subsidiary, CDSL Ventures Limited. Thank you. Over to you Sunil.
Yeah, thanks, Girish. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining this investor call of CDSL. So far as CDSL Ventures is concerned, the operational income is simply down by 2% as compared with Q1 FY 2022. The operational income in Q1 FY 2023 was INR 27.67 crores as compared to INR 28.11 crores in Q1 FY 2022. Other income took a substantial hit. Q1 FY 2023 income was just INR 23 lakhs as against INR 2.74 crores in Q1 FY 2022. The total income was down by 10% to INR 27.90 crores as against INR 30.85 crores. The profit before tax this quarter was 14.17 crores as compared to 18.84 crores last year.
So far as the core business is concerned, in terms of KYC creation, we added 30 lakh new KYC records as compared to 29.37 lakhs in Q1 FY 2022. Taking the overall KYC records to 4.61 crores as of June 2022. So far as KYC fetch was concerned, there was a marginal drop by 6% in line with the total market conditions. In terms of KYC interop fetch, it was higher by 42% to 3.52 lakh as compared to 2.44 lakh last year. In the RTAs space, we have added 30 companies, taking the total number of companies to 870.
Similarly, from GST filing, we were higher by 14% to INR 55.48 lakh as compared to INR 48.86 lakh. With this, I open the floor for questions, and we'll be very happy to take any questions from the investors. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on your touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Prakash Kapadia from Anived Portfolio Managers Private Limited. Please go ahead sir.
Thank you for the opportunity. Couple of questions from my end. Sunil, if I look at the KYC business, the subsidiary business, you know, post two years, we've seen a 2% revenue decline. You mentioned in your opening remarks, you know, the addition, the fetches were less. Is the revenue decline due to some pricing mix or some, you know, competitive pressure, or is it just lesser fetches from the mutual fund industry? If you could give us some sense.
It is a combination of all. There is pricing pressure because of the competition as well as lesser fetches. Because so far as the KYC business is concerned, around 80% of the income would come from fetches.
Yeah. Okay. Because that volume is less, you're saying that affected the-
Absolutely, yeah.
This KYC fetch would be the largest contributor to our subsidiary business, right?
Absolutely.
Because the others are still relatively smaller.
Yeah. They are in a very nascent stage, but they should get traction.
To add to what Sunil is saying.
Yeah.
The issue here is that there's overall market sentiment also if you see in this quarter. There has been muted volumes in the overall market picture. Obviously that kind of derives its business from there. It is a function of the overall market participation.
Right. Nehal on the, you know, other side, the depository segment has still grown 26%. I couldn't get the PPT on the website or the, you know, stock exchange filings. If you could give us some sense of, you know, despite capital markets being volatile, despite, you know, the volumes, cash volumes being lower, what has driven this, you know, revenue growth for us? If you know Girish has the numbers handy in terms of the key revenue items that will give us more clarity.
Yeah. First of all, the website, CDSL website has the presentation. Just wanted to clarify that. I think, basically the NSE is facing some issue in kind of uploading. Our team is in touch with the-
Okay.
NSE. Second is, CDSL has two principal sources of revenue. One is obviously the market-related revenue. Second is basically the annuity which we receive from companies.
Right.
I think overall, both of them and also basically the IPOs and the corporate actions, et cetera, which is in a way not directly related to markets, but it is connected to markets. It's a function of both these which are strictly directly related to the market volumes and some which are kind of an annuity base. That is why the culmination of CDSL's the revenue mix is a combination of both these factors, and therefore that has led to a 28% increase.
Okay. You know, on the employee cost, there was a INR 10.86 crores payout to subsidiaries. What was that and to which subsidiary and was there some milestone to that? Even if I, you know, exclude that from the base, employee costs are up almost 25%-26%. Is it due to the annual bonuses and hikes which are captured in this quarter kind of cost for employees?
Yeah. It's basically not to subsidiaries. It is on account of the bonuses and the hikes which have happened. It is linked to the financial performance of the previous year. It's all linked as per what is our internal policy. It's a fallout of the bonuses and the increments based on the financial performance of last year.
Okay. Understood. Given that, you know, most of this is there in the base, the addition to employee costs should be much lower, right? You know, balance of.
No, it's a combination. We are even in an expansion mode. There are regulatory responsibilities which are also increasing.
Okay.
Our prime focus as a MII is to ensure the regulatory responsibilities is of prime focus. To ensure that the trust in the system is being built. Technology also is our second focus. That whilst we build the technology, it's also the right key people. We've all seen that there have been huge amount of attrition all around, especially in the technology areas, but also in the other areas. To get the right people, the right expertise, you need to ensure that you are adequately compensating these people.
Right. Okay. Understood. Lastly, you know, the other income has fallen by more than 50%. What would the mark-to-market impact or the hit we would have taken because of rising interest rates, if you could quantify, Girish?
Yeah. I'll ask Girish.
If you compare our quarter-over-quarter, last quarter we had an Mark-to-Market income of investment income of almost INR 11 crore. This year we have closed at INR 4.75. Difference you can consider as mark-to- arket hit.
Understood. Fine. I'll join back with you if I have more questions. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants, you may enter star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Madhukar Ladha from Elara Capital, please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Yes.
Yeah. Hi. Thank you for this opportunity. Good morning, sir. I wanted to see if the presentation is not available on the CDSL website. I've been trying to get it, but it's just not there. Can I get the revenue break up in terms of Annual Issuer Charges, Transaction Charges, and IPO and online data charges for the quarter. That'd be helpful. Second, you know, one thing I wanted to understand, that the standalone net profit is about INR 89 crore and the consolidated net profit is at about INR 57.6 crore. I can see that there's INR 9 crore of loss from associates coming in. That would still mean a difference of about INR 23 crore. Which is a negative item.
Is the subsidiary sort of contributing a negative amount of about INR 23 crore? Is that right?
One is, I'll ask Girish to answer that. Anyway, the website, CDSL website has. I've got it confirmed from my team. If you refresh your website, it, the presentation is there on the CDSL website. I'll just ask Girish to answer that.
First, to answer your question on the standalone profit. In this quarter, we have received dividend from our subsidiary, CDSL Ventures Limited, of INR 41 crore. That's the reason standalone profits are higher. This dividend gets eliminated on consolidation. Consolidated profit is lower.
Right. Right.
And, uh-
Understood. That explains it, yeah.
Yeah. Answering your breakup of income, we have achieved annual issuer income of INR 45.23 crore in this quarter. Transaction charge of INR 40.81 crore. KRA KYC charges at INR 22.54 crore. IPO corporate action income of 14 crore. Cash income of four and a half crore. E-voting income of INR 2.84 crore. This breakup covers almost 90% of our operating income.
Understood. I just got the presentation right now on the website. I'll just go through it, and if I have any questions I'll come back to you. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sanketh Godha from Spark Capital, p lease go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, we see that the Annual Issuer Charges have substantially increased in the current quarter to almost INR 45 crores. Which last year in every quarter was in the range of INR 20-29 crores. Sir, just wanted to understand what led to this growth. How do we see this number to play out for subsequent quarters? It should broadly remain in the same range going ahead too?
This is more linked to the overall newer companies getting added to the fold. Also, the newer investors coming into the fold. It's a combination of this, which kind of has led to an increase in the annual issuer fees. The reply to that is this.
Okay. Given it is more sticky or annuity in nature, so this number should remain same for subsequent years also, subsequent quarters too for the year. Because the billing probably happens at the start of the year.
Yeah, we don't give any future.
Okay. Okay
-Guidance.
Okay, sir. Sir, can we get this breakup of INR 45 crores? I think we have given the numbers in the past too, broken down into listed and unlisted companies.
Okay. One minute. I'll ask Girish to give you that.
Income from unlisted company is INR 1.47 crore in this quarter.
Sir, one more data point. I believe you said the transaction income was closer to INR 40.8 crores. Again, just wanted to understand how pledge is behaving, pledge income is behaving, compared to the numbers what we have delivered in the past. To the extent I remember it was closer to INR 4 crores in last quarter. Can we get a similar number in the current quarter, sir?
Income from pledge is INR 341 crore in this quarter.
Okay. Perfect. Just again on the same question, on the employee cost, even if we knock off the one-time performance bonus kind of a thing, still that number at around INR 15 crores seems to be higher compared to the quarterly run rate of INR 12-13 crores what we paid in previous four quarters. Even if I adjust for the inflation and all those things, it seems to be still on the higher side.
Sir, just wanted to understand is that this employee growth is more because of the new initiatives or the hike have been very strong because of the very strong last few years. How do we read these numbers basically?
It is safe to say we need to understand that CDSL is on a growth trajectory, and two principal costs are technology and employees.
Mm-hmm.
We need the right people, and we need to expand our employee teams to kind of garner and able to achieve the increased growth on a sustainable basis, both from a business standpoint, a technology standpoint and operation standpoint, and lastly, but most importantly from a compliance and regulatory standpoint. It is, I think what is important to state is that as that revenue is growing, the employee costs will also have to kind of link in some form or the other to ensure that it is able to basically sustain the growth which is expected.
Got it, sir. Finally, can you give data provision cost? That's it from my side then.
What do you want as data points?
Data provision cost.
Data provision cost.
INR 3.41 crore.
INR 3.41 crores. Okay, sir. Thank you. Okay.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ravin Kurwa from ICICI Securities, please go ahead.
Hello. Hi, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. My question is related to employee cost indeed. What will be the quarterly run rate which we can expect going forward? For some sense on FY 2024 also. Secondly, our other expenditure have also risen sharply. If you can help us to understand, you know, which line item has led to the increase in the cost. Thanks.
The future run rate, we don't give any, future guidance, so that I'll have to kind of pass. That's for you to kind of judge. I have given you very transparently the reason why this has led to an increase, and it is in sync in terms of the overall performance of the company. In terms of the other expenses, I'll ask Girish to give the breakup.
First employee cost has increased by INR 13.91 crore. Depreciation has increased by INR two and a half crore. Debtors' provision has increased by INR 75 lakhs. Technology cost has increased by INR 3.22 crore. Bottom line, all this, if you look at these numbers, this gives the breakup of the incremental cost that we have incurred in this quarter.
Yeah, thanks.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Santosh Kumar Keshari from Keshari Wealth, please go ahead.
Hello. Am I audible?
Yes. Yes.
Yeah. Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity. I just wanted to ask you two questions. One is that about RTA. Sunil said that there are 837 companies that CDSL group is serving in terms of RTA. If you can give a sense of revenue that is there and the profitability, and where do we stand in the market pecking order or among RTA companies? Do we stand in top five, top ten? If you can give that. After that, I'll come to my second question.
Far as the RTA business is concerned, right now we are focusing only on the unlisted companies. To that extent, we will not be able to benchmark ourselves as within the top five or top 10 because we are not handling any, you know, listed public companies. Typically the RTA revenue is about INR 1 crore per annum.
Oh, okay. It's very less adjustment.
That's right, yeah.
Yeah. Any reason that we are focusing only on unlisted companies? Like we have such an expertise in serving larger market participants, bigger companies. We have all the technology well with us. We can serve as well the bigger companies and be a better service provider in the marketplace, being more trusted. Any reason that we are limiting ourself only to unlisted companies?
Yeah, because you need a very specialized team for this. It is in terms of the graduated approach which we are trying to achieve, that our principal form of business and within CVL is of the KYC Registration Agency and also serving basically the unlisted space. We want to ensure that our core competence remains there. As Sunil mentioned, the RTA business is also a very specialized business. As we gain the traction and experience, we may think about it in future. As of now, our focus remains here.
Lastly, my second question. Had there been no special bonus to employees in the current quarter, what would have been the hike in the employee cost? If you can give me that number.
We don't generally disclose the internal workings if it's a basically what-if analysis. This has actually happened, so what is the actual truth is what. Anyway, bonuses are payable at the end of the financial year every year. It is a function of the financial performance of the company.
Okay. Just one more thing here. Is this something that is paid to all the employees across the board, or it is given only to the senior management?
It is given to all the employees.
Okay. Okay. That makes it very clear. Thank you, Nehal. Thank you so much. Wish you all good luck.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pratiksha, an individual investor. please go ahead.
Nehal, I just want to ask, so as we all know that we have recently launched our India's first bullion exchange. Just want to ask, like, is there any role for CDSL in that? Can we expect some revenue from this current quarter once the operation starts?
Yeah. I think that's a very good question. CDSL was the pioneer in terms of setting up the depository at GIFT City. But in line with the overall ecosystem, a consortium of BSE, NSE, MCX, NSDL, CDSL was formed to own the gold ecosystem, which comprises of the exchange, clearing corporation and the depository. Now therefore, the CDSL IFSC has been sold to that consortium. CDSL is now a part of a 20% owner, an equivalent 20% owner of the entire consortium. So it owns the entire ecosystem. Therefore, again, this is kind of a future guidance, so I'll kind of refrain from saying what will happen in future.
The expectation and the intent behind is that we contribute to the entire ecosystem rather than owning the depository space in the GIFT City, which is a new and upcoming area, which was recently inaugurated by the Honorable Prime Minister.
Like CDSL will definitely play a major role in this bullion exchange and other operations, right?
Yes. Yes. Absolutely.
Okay. Yeah. Good luck for the future, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Madhukar Ladha from Elara Capital, please go ahead.
Hi, thank you for taking my question again. If I look at the online data charges, which is mainly the CVL business, that is down on a QOQ basis from about INR 31 crores to INR 23 crores. I think partly it is, you know, lower fetches. What are the fetch numbers? I think you had said it in the opening remarks, but, you know, there were too many numbers, so I missed that. How much has that dropped, you know, year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter? I believe there's also, you know, some pricing pressure and competing technologies as well in the KYC space.
Can you elaborate a little bit on that, in terms of what are the kind of pricing pressure that we are seeing and with some sort of narrative around how the business is evolving over there, that will be helpful.
I'll ask Sunil to answer that.
Yeah. In Q1 FY 2023, the number of fetches were 66.58 lakhs. As compared in Q1 FY 2022, it was 17.06 lakhs. If I compare this financial quarter to last year's financial quarter, it is down by about 6%. Typically, if you see the overall demat and broking accounts since last quarter have been down. Since our business is intrinsically linked to the number of demat and broking accounts, obviously the number of fetches have gone down. But the number of records created have been higher by about 5%. So far as the business is concerned, the SEBI has recently come up with the KYC amended regulation, where the KRAs would be playing a larger role in terms of you know, validating, et cetera, KYC records.
Considering this, we are here to stay.
Maybe what would that larger role entail? Can you describe that a little bit more in detail?
I will take that question. It's an overall market infrastructure institution ecosystem, and KRA is a part of that entire ecosystem. This is in line with building the entire ecosystem which is to kind of ensure higher financial inclusion, at the same time, convenience and security to be enhanced at a centralized level. As more and more participants are expected to join the fold of the securities market, that is supposed to be a part of that entire story.
Got it. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Deepan from Trustline, please go ahead
Good morning, everyone, and thanks a lot for the opportunity. Firstly, wanted to understand about the Annual Issuer Charges. The increase, as you mentioned, was due to higher company additions. Can you please mention what kind of company additions happened during past quarter?
I'll ask Girish to answer that.
Initially we are told that the increase in annual issuer income is a combination of increase in the investor account.
Okay.
It's a kind of a consolidated thing of the number of companies as well as the number of paying investors. As of now, we don't disclose the number of companies which have been added in terms of the annual issuer.
Okay.
It is as a consolidated number.
Okay. Sure, sir. The price increase in annual issuer charges business has been due for a long time. Are we in discussion with SEBI and is it expected anytime sooner?
Yeah, I mean, that is overall in terms of this will have to be a joint initiative, both the depositories. There are numerous things which are happening simultaneously, so that we will see as the year progresses as to how it's to be handled.
Okay. Other than GIFT City, any update on other newer businesses what we are working on?
There is a gold spot exchange in the local market also, which the circular has been issued. CDSL is very much a part of that entire ecosystem.
Okay, sir. Thank you and all this.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, please limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Abhay, an individual investor, please go ahead.
Yeah, just two questions. One, the absolute INR 10.96 crore of payment to employees. Do we anticipate any payments in any other quarter in this year, sir, as of date?
No, there is going to be the employee cost every quarter, right? There's a salary cost which happens every day and every month.
Yeah. No, in addition to this, I mean, this 10.96 is a sort of annual, special payment or bonus or whatever. Do we anticipate-
Normally that is paid at the end of the financial year. In terms of, as of now, it will go as per what is the routine salary cost. Based on the performance, there is a performance appraisal done at the end of the year.
These costs were not very high in the first quarter of last year. As you were saying, a reason is that your annual performance has been very good in the last two years, therefore the amounts are large and obviously there's accretion. What is it based on? Is it based on annual profit growth or is it based on annual absolute level of profit in a year? What is the basis of payment based on, sir?
It's a combination of various factors of financial performance, profitability. Also, how has the growth been. It is SEBI has laid down under its regulations as to how compensation on the broad schemes that needs to be construed and done. It's completely in compliance with those broad factors which have been put in place.
Okay. Just as a guideline, do we take this INR 11 crore paid in the first quarter this year to be some sort of a benchmark and assume similar payments in future first quarters?
We don't give any future guidance, so I.
Okay.
I am not able to answer that.
Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ravin Kurwa from ICICI Securities, please go ahead.
Opportunity again, sir. My one more question was in the transaction revenue which we have booked in the quarter, what will be the pledge income related to the pledge fee?
INR 3.340 crores in the first quarter.
INR 3.40 crore. What will be there in last quarter?
It was INR 3 crore. You are asking last quarter means March or you are asking June? June na? 3.23%.
March.
March was roughly around that only.
INR 3.40 crores. Sir, is there any slowdown in the pledge which we are seeing post Q1 FY 2023 because markets are peaked out in March or something like that as you know. Post that, are we seeing any reduction in pledges which are being taken place right now?
I think the numbers are there for you to see, so you can make your own calculation whether there is.
No, no. I'm asking post Q1 FY 2023.
No, that's what I'm saying, that you will have to see the numbers of the first quarter and compare it with the previous quarters, in terms of, whether there is a slowdown. We don't give any future guidance, so you'll have to kind of see it in that particular spirit.
Sir, what will be the total number of pledges, if you can help us with those numbers?
We generally don't provide these numbers. It's a consolidated value in terms of that revenue which is given out.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Amit Chandra from ICICI Securities, please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, sir, and thanks for the opportunity. My question is on the technology spend. I know you have mentioned that there is increased focus on enhancing the technology. You know, we have increased the investment significantly there on the technology. Is there any specific areas where we are trying to spend or we are trying to upgrade or, you know, increase the capacity? You know, where we can see the technology spend flattening or I don't know, maybe some like projects are still remaining or in the process. I just want a sense that, I don't know, where we can see the technology spend stabilizing.
It's a continuous process of basically evolution because regulation is also getting evolved with newer products, newer processes, newer controls in place. We are building a sustainable long-term solution so that it is flexible enough to kind of incorporate all these changes, both from a regulatory standpoint and also from a business standpoint, make it more and more easy as well as efficient for the customers to kind of access the markets. It'll be difficult to segregate between what is new and what is old, but it is kind of making the entire technology system more robust as well as more flexible and nimble to kind of cater to the changing requirements, both from a regulation standpoint as well as from a business standpoint.
It's a continuous process of kind of reviewing our technology needs and trying to bring in line with whatever is the sophisticated technology systems of the world.
Okay. Sir, if you can provide the, you know, the total number of employees that you have in the standard entity and, you know, this one, CDSL Ventures Limited, and how that number of employees have increased over the last two years.
See, as of now, as on June quarter, we had the count is 250. In March, we had a count of 246.
Okay.
Last year, June, the count was around 119.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Sir, in terms of the new initiatives, you know, mostly on the insurance repository side and the commodity repository side, what is the progress? Any like new developments there you can highlight?
We are kind of ready with our systems in terms of the commodities. You're talking about the gold spot, right?
No, no. The Commodity Repository Limited, so CRL and CIRL.
Yeah. That continues to evolve. I think there is some changes in the act which are pending with the honorable Parliament. We are continuously, I think, evolving ourselves to be in sync with whatever are the changing requirements. As soon as that act is passed, then that will kind of change the entire way of doing things significantly.
Okay. In terms of revenue contribution, how much is insurance repository really contributing? Can you provide that number, please?
Yeah, it is. I'll ask Girish. It is not significant as of now, but I'll ask Girish.
It is less than 1%.
Now, sir, you know, in the other source of revenue like the e-voting, which was, and AGM, which was, you know, participating.
I think you are talking about e-voting.
Yeah.
Okay. e-voting income is INR 2.84 crore in this quarter.
Okay. You know, in terms of the AGMs also, you know, because the last year it was COVID year, you know, the virtual AGMs were, you know, like preferred. In this year, we can see, you know, like drop in that revenue. If you can quantify what was the contribution of AGM revenue in the last year's, you know, numbers, YoY, if you can give that, e-voting and AGM.
As of now, I think there is an option given for holding the meetings through VCs. We don't see. We'll have to wait and see as to how it culminates by 30th September.
Thank you. Mr. Chandra, may we request you to return to the question queue for any follow-up questions? The next question is from the line of Kunal Thanvi from Banyan Tree Advisors Private Limited, p lease go ahead, sir.
Thanks for the opportunity. Two questions. The first one was a bookkeeping one, if you can help us with the cash business revenue for this quarter. The second was on, you know, transaction, you know, income. If we look at the overall cash volumes in the market and the settlement volumes, there has been a sharp fall in last two, three months looking at the market situation. However, when we look at CDSL's transaction income, the fall has been, you know, not that bad. Like, comparatively, it has been resilient. What should one read into it? Is it because of the, you know, rise in the pledge business or you know, or any other factor that played in that respect?
If you can help us with that. Thanks.
The first question I'll ask Girish to answer.
Cash income is INR 4.5 crore in this quarter.
Sure.
The second question, you know, is the reply to that would be that it's a combination. It's a lot of the newer investors coming, and I think the delivery-based volume is what has been there. It's a combination of your pledge, re-pledge, the delivery-based volumes, which constitutes the transaction charges. The entire way of doing things is significantly being modified. There are multiple legs which are there in the entire market cycle. You'll have to see that in that sense. Your initial remarks that this pledge, re-pledge, that's part of it, but it's also delivery-based volumes, et cetera, and the newer people coming in, which is leading to a higher level of delivery-based volumes.
Even if I look at the delivery-based volume, right, which is the settlement volume, that SEBI gives on their data on their website, the fall for this, you know, particular quarter for both depositories has been very high. Like, if I look at even say, CDSL, the fall has been around 36% on a QOQ basis. Whereas when we look at the revenues for transaction income, the fall is 22% for CDSL, right? On a QOQ basis. The differential is like quite large. Is it like a part count-
Mainly it's a pledge re-pledge system. I think that would be one of the principal factors. There are other ancillary factors, but this is one of the principal factors.
Sure. Got it. Last one, if I can, is on the Annual Issuer Charges. Sorry, I joined the call late. Can you help us understand, you know, the sharp increase in the Annual Issuer Charges? We have more number of companies, you know, getting added. When I look at our, you know, last four, five quarters number, you know, we can figure out that the addition has been there for a while now. Like, we've been adding a decent number of companies every quarter. What has changed in this quarter, particularly both on a QoQ and a YoY basis? Because the jump has been very sharp. Like, is it that billing cycle comes in the quarter and hence this number is what it is? How should one read into it?
Yeah. The billing normally happens in the first quarter of every year. You should look at it from that perspective. Quantum is a function. You joined late. This question was asked earlier. We've already replied to this. As a function of newer companies joining and number of newer, basically investors which have also joined the ecosystem. It's a combination of that which leads to the increase in the annual issuer fees.
There is no impact of pricing as of now. It is just the volume that has. Okay. Thanks, Nehal, and all the best for the video.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, please limit your question to one per participant. The next question is from the line of Narendra Porwal, an individual investor. Please go ahead. Hello. Namaskar, sir.
Ha, bilkul.
Sir,
Sir, website update. Monthly checkup. What I'm trying to tell you is that whatever is the end of the month numbers that only comes on the first of each month. We don't update on a daily basis. That is the standard operating procedure, and that is followed by both the NSDL and CDSL. CDSL has been extremely prompt in ensuring that its numbers are always put out on the first of the month without fail. If you are facing some issue or you want to see where, then you can send us an email. We'll send you the link, etc., where you need to look at it.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Anup Biswas, an individual investor, p lease go ahead.
Thank you, sir, for giving me the opportunity. I also joined late. I am questioning on the issuer charge, Annual Issuer Charge. The Annual Issuer Charge, sir, INR 11 per folio.
Okay.
However, it is in line with whatever is basically the inflation, etc.
Yes, sir.
We have to see. SEBI will take its own call as to what it has to take into consideration all the conditions of the market before it really proposes anything. We have to wait.
The last-
Yes, sir. Last increase in 1995.
No.
2000. Oh, okay.
2015.
2015. Yes. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pratik Shah, an individual investor, please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question again. Nehal, sir, at the end of last quarter, we have declared INR 15 dividend, right? Is this the 60% of operating profit as we have a fixed dividend policy? Just want a confirmation on that.
Yeah, it is. I'll ask Girish for that.
It is 60% of the net profit, and it would be paid after the shareholders approve it.
Yeah. Okay. Okay, sir. Thank you.
Just on the previous question, I've just got an update from my team that some days the numbers are getting updated by second or third also on some of the days. That is basically the process of internal reconciliation sometimes is done. We will try to move towards coming on the first. Thank you for pointing it out.
Thank you. In the interest of time, that was the last question. I would now like to hand the conference back over to the management for closing remarks.
No, I just wanted to ensure that all of you remain safe, continue to remain safe. There are a lot of health hazards which we keep on seeing in the news. Ensure that your family remains safe and secure. Our intent of CDSL is to ensure that we continuously build India as a new kind of an ecosystem and want to partner in the growth of the entire ecosystem. That's been our focus from a technology standpoint. Thank you.
Thank you. On behalf of Axis Capital Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.