India's mutual fund industry body thinks it has too much money earmarked for investor awareness—and wants Sebi to cut the flow.
The Association of Mutual Funds of India (Amfi) wants the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to cut the mandatory levy that feeds its investor-awareness fund, three officials familiar with the matter told Mint.
Amfi believes the fund has grown too large to spend meaningfully. A lower levy could also give asset management companies (AMCs) greater flexibility over investor-awareness spending and potentially improve their profitability.
Under the Sebi (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996, AMCs are required to set aside 2 basis points of their daily net assets, within the overall total expense ratio (TER) limit, towards investor awareness and education each year.
Of this, 1 basis point is retained by the AMC to undertake investor-awareness initiatives, while the remaining 1 basis point is contributed to the Amfi's Investor Awareness Fund.
A rough calculation based on the industry's ₹82.2 trillion in assets as of June end suggests the 1-basis-point contribution to Amfi's investor-awareness fund could amount to around ₹800 crore a year. The amount would vary with the industry's assets.
“There has been a discussion to reduce Amfi’s investor awareness funds. Right now, it receives about ₹800 crore annually which is a very big amount. The aim is to bring the right balance and bring it down to about ₹500- ₹600 crore,” said one of the three officials.
Discussions are still at a preliminary stage, and the extent of the reduction has not yet been decided.
The size of the corpus has already drawn scrutiny. In 2024-25, Amfi spent 87.5% of its investor-awareness and education fund on media campaigns through digital platforms and advertising agencies, The Hindu reported in April 2026. The balance in the fund as of FY25 was more than ₹1,114 crore, the report said.
Amfi also spends on training post office staff and other intermediaries, organising seminars and webinars, working with educational institutes and government skill-development programmes, and deploying mobile awareness vans and buses.
Mails sent to Amfi and Sebi remained unanswered until press time.
A smaller levy, more flexibility
A reduction in the share of the investor-awareness levy that goes to Amfi could allow AMCs to retain more funds for their own investor-education initiatives.
“This may be a good move. Say if Amfi receives 0.5 basis points it would also lead to the AMC having more leeway in its own spends for investor awareness and education and could help smaller AMCs who usually fall short of cash for such initiatives,” said a second official.
There is another way to view the proposal. Since the mandatory allocation towards investor awareness is currently charged within the TER, a lower allocation could reduce the expense and potentially give AMCs more flexibility on how they deploy other expenses within the permitted limit, added the official.
“AMCs operate on relatively thin margins. If the mandatory investor education expense is reduced and the savings accrue back to the fund house, it may improve their profitability,” said a fourth person familiar with the matter.
The proposal comes as investors are paying closer attention to AMC profitability following a series of high-profile listings. ICICI Prudential AMC listed on Indian stock exchanges in December 2025, while SBI Funds Management is looking to list in what would be the year's largest listing.
AMC spend
AMCs can use their own 1-basis-point allocation for advertising in print and digital media.
“These advertisements can be about educating investors about a category or a concept relating to mutual funds, such as SIPs. AMCs can also organize training programmes for investors,” said Deepak Shenoy, chief executive officer at Capitalmind Mutual Fund.
One popular way of using the money is through investor-awareness programmes, or IAPs, where AMCs talk about mutual funds as a broad category without promoting their own products.
In the financial year ended 31 March 2025, Amfi conducted 306 IAPs covering 68,325 participants. AMCs conducted 14,749 programmes covering 1.15 million participants across India.