When is interest paid, and do I get it if I sell before the record date?

Each coupon is paid to the holder recorded by the depository on the record date, not to whoever held the bond for most of the period.

How do the dates fit together?

Date	What it means
Payment (coupon) date	The day the issuer pays interest, set in the offer document
Record date	The day the list of holders is fixed for that payment; it comes before the payment date
Trade date	The day you buy or sell
Settlement date	The day the bond moves into or out of your demat, T+1 for most orders on Jiraaf and T+1 or T+2 on GoldenPi

Settlement examples: Jiraaf, GoldenPi. What counts is whose demat holds the bond on the record date after settlement, not the trade date. A sale traded just before the record date that settles after it leaves you on the list, and you receive that coupon.

If I sell before the record date, do I lose the interest?

Not if the sale is priced properly. The interest earned since the last coupon is accrued interest, and the buyer pays it to you as part of the sale:

• On the NSE or BSE capital market segment, the order book any broker uses, bonds and G-secs trade at the dirty price, which already includes accrued interest, under NSE circular NSE/CMTR/39581 of 4th Dec 2018 (NSE circulars).
• On the exchange RFQ platform used by bond apps, and on NDS-OM, the price is quoted clean and accrued interest is added separately (NSE RFQ).

A TradingQnA user who sold an NCD a day before the record date and then did not receive the coupon (TradingQnA) would normally have been paid for that interest through the dirty price. On an order book nothing forces a buyer's bid to include it, so compare any bid near a coupon with the clean price plus accrued interest before you sell.

In rupees: a ₹1 lakh face value bond paying 9% once a year pays ₹9,000 to the record date holder, or ₹8,100 after 10% TDS. Sell it 6 months after the last coupon and about ₹4,500 of accrued interest is part of what the buyer pays you.

Where do I find the dates?

SEBI requires bond platforms to show coupon type, rate, frequency and maturity for each bond (SEBI NCS Master Circular), and the offer document sets the record date. Paytm Money's bond pages show record dates (Business Standard). For G-secs and SGBs, TradingQnA's lists of interest dates are among its most viewed bond pages: 70,444 views for G-sec payment dates and 42,765 for SGB record dates (G-sec dates, SGB dates).

Some platforms limit selling around a record date: Stable Bonds' terms say its Withdraw Anytime feature can be switched off near a record date (Stable Bonds terms).

Why didn't my interest arrive?

Check these in order:

1. Did you hold the bond in demat on the record date? A purchase that settled after it means the seller got that coupon.
2. Was TDS deducted? Listed NCD interest has carried 10% TDS since 1st Apr 2023, so the credit is smaller than the coupon. See TDS on bond interest.
3. Is it an SGB? SGB interest is paid on the issue price, not the market price, so it is often less than expected (TradingQnA).
4. Is the bank account linked to your demat the right one? Interest is paid to that account.

If all 4 check out, write to the platform with your demat holding statement for the record date and ask it to raise the payment with the issuer.