What is a POA or DDPI in a demat account?

A POA (Power of Attorney) or DDPI (Demat Debit and Pledge Instruction) is an authorisation that lets your broker debit shares from your demat account for specific purposes, mainly to deliver shares you have sold. DDPI has replaced the older, broader POA for new accounts.

The old POA gave brokers wide powers over your demat account, and there were cases of misuse. DDPI is narrower. It covers only a few defined actions, such as delivering shares against your sell trades, pledging for margin, mutual fund transactions on exchange platforms, and tendering shares in buybacks or open offers.

Here is the practical effect. If you have signed DDPI and you sell 100 shares of a hypothetical company, the broker debits them automatically. Without DDPI, you must authorise every sale using TPIN and an OTP through the depository’s eDIS process.

• DDPI is optional; you can trade without it.
• Without it, forgetting eDIS authorisation can lead to a short delivery.
• It does not let the broker move shares to anyone else’s account.

Most beginners sign it during onboarding without reading what it covers. Take five minutes to read the form. Account mechanics like this are taught in the basics module of our Diploma in Stock Market.