New Delhi, Feb. 2 -- The recently-announced increase in the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the Budget presentation for the upcoming fiscal could be counterproductive if the government intends to curb speculative activity in futures and options (F&O), according to Nithin Kamath, founder and chief executive of Zerodha.

In a post on social media platform X on February 2, a day after the Budget, Kamath argued that higher STT rates are more likely to skew trading further toward options rather than reduce overall speculation, given how the tax is structured across derivatives products.

With a view to discouraging small investors from speculative trading in derivatives, Sitharaman announced a ste...