An initial public offering (IPO) is an offering of fresh shares to the public with a view to listing the company in the stock exchanges. The IPO market is also called the primary market and is to seen as distinct from the secondary market.

Essentially IPOs are done for one of the two reasons. Firstly, an IPO is intended to raise fresh capital to finance the expansion / diversification plans of the company. An IPO can also be in the form of an offer for sale where the IPO is done to give an exit route to early investors in the company.

No, you cannot put multiple applications for an IPO and there can only be one application under one PAN number. If there 5 members in your family, then you can put in 5 applications. But duplicate applications in the same PAN is barred and your application is likely to be rejected.

You can apply for an IPO either offline or online. An offline application can be made by filling up the IPO form and submitting it physically to the banks / brokers. Alternatively, you can also apply for the IPO through your online trading account interface provided by your broker and it is a lot simpler.

IPO application using UPI is a step towards digitizing the offline processes involved in the application process by moving the same online. This requires you to have to create a UPI ID and PIN using any of the UPI enabled mobile application (Banks/ Third Party Apps). The UPI ID can be used for blocking of funds and making payment in the IPO process. You can accept the request for the amount you have bid by entering your UPI PIN. The money shall be earmarked for settlement once the allocation process is completed and shall be automatically remitted to the Escrow Bank. UPI in IPO process shall essentially bring in comfort, ease of use and reduce the listing time for IPO.

Investors and traders are generally curious and anxious to know the results of the application as soon as possible. To ease the anxiety, both Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) have come up with dedicated pages and links which investors can use.

NSE

The NSE has an IPO bid verification module. It can be used to verify the IPO application details uploaded on the exchange bidding system by your member/bank. The data of the bid details uploaded by the member/bank would be available on T+1 day (where T would be date receipt of bid on NSE platform).

In addition, the data would be available until six days after the issue closure date. This gives the investor enough time to verify the data and instruct the member/bank to make any changes, if required.

Exchange will also provide allotment information as provided by the registrar to the issue.

An investor can avail this facility by registering using his/her PAN details. After registration, the investor will receive an email notification from NSE on the registered email address. That email will provide the login details.

The following link can be used for the same:

https://www.nseindia.com/products/dynaContent/equities/ipos/ipo_login.jsp

BSE

The BSE has also come up with a similar platform.

This unique facility allows investors to verify the status of their application submitted to a Trading Member or a SCSB (Self-Certified Schedule Banks).

The investor can check his application status/information on the website until one week after issue close.

The following link can be used by investors:

https://www.bseindia.com/investors/appli_check.aspx

IPOs, as such, do not have any taxes. You are taxed only when you decide to sell the IPO shares.

Any monetary profit you make while selling the IPO shares is referred to as ‘capital gains’.

Capital gains tax is charged depending on how long you held the shares for. If you owned the shares for less than 12 months, it is considered as short-term capital gains and if it is over 12 months, it is referred as long-term capital gains.

Tax on short-term capital gains is 15%. It is 10% for equity gains in the long run (over 12 months). Do remember that you are taxed if the equity proceeds exceeds Rs 1 lakh.