Cut-off Time & Time Stamping Rules
The cut-off time decides which day's NAV applies to a purchase or redemption. This lesson sets out the cut-offs for liquid, overnight and other schemes, why the arrival of money matters and how requests are time-stamped.
Why a cut-off exists
A scheme's NAV changes from one day to the next. A rule fixed in advance, and applied to everyone alike, has to decide which day's NAV a given transaction gets. The cut-off time is that rule.
Every request is time-stamped on receipt, and online requests carry a system time stamp. For a purchase, the time at which the money becomes available to the scheme matters as well.
Schemes other than liquid and overnight funds
A purchase gets the NAV of the day on which the money is available to the scheme before the 3:00 PM cut-off. This holds whatever the amount: the older rule that treated purchases of ₹2 lakh and above differently is gone.
A redemption request received by 3:00 PM gets that day's NAV.
Liquid and overnight funds
The purchase cut-off is earlier, at 1:30 PM, and a purchase with the money available before it gets the previous day's closing NAV. The redemption cut-off is 3:00 PM.
Online redemption requests in overnight funds are accepted up to 7:00 PM, a later cut-off in place since 1 June 2025. Other redemption requests in overnight funds follow the 3:00 PM cut-off.
After the cut-off, and outside it
A request after the cut-off is treated as received on the next business day. A business day is a day on which the money markets are open.
Two cases sit outside these rules. During a new fund offer, units are allotted at the offer price; the cut-off rules apply once the scheme is open. ETF units bought or sold on a stock exchange trade at market price.
Rules at a glance
Two purchases in an equity fund (illustrative)
At 2:30 PM on Tuesday, Harish applies for ₹75,000 of units in an equity fund and pays by cheque. The money reaches the scheme's account on Wednesday before 3:00 PM. He gets Wednesday's NAV, the day the money was available, not Tuesday's.
At 3:05 PM on a business day, Jaya places an online purchase of ₹50,000 in the same fund, and her payment reaches the scheme at once. The money became available after the cut-off, so she gets the next business day's NAV. The speed of the payment and the amount make no difference.
Why the day matters (illustrative)
- Assumptions for the arithmetic only: Harish's ₹75,000 is allotted at Wednesday's NAV of ₹50.00, and Tuesday's NAV was ₹49.50.
- Stamp duty = 0.005% × ₹75,000 = ₹3.75, leaving ₹74,996.25 to buy units.
- Units at Wednesday's NAV = ₹74,996.25 ÷ ₹50.00 = 1,499.925.
- At Tuesday's NAV the same money would have bought ₹74,996.25 ÷ ₹49.50 = 1,515.076 units.
Result. The applicable day changed the allotment by about 15 units. Had the NAV fallen between the two days instead of rising, the later day would have given more units, not fewer.
Key points
- For schemes other than liquid and overnight funds, a purchase gets the NAV of the day the money is available to the scheme by 3:00 PM, whatever the amount.
- A redemption request by 3:00 PM gets the same day's NAV.
- Liquid and overnight funds: purchase cut-off 1:30 PM with the previous day's NAV; redemption cut-off 3:00 PM.
- Online redemption requests in overnight funds are accepted up to 7:00 PM.
- A request after the cut-off is treated as received on the next business day, a business day being one on which the money markets are open.
- Every request is time-stamped on receipt.
Common misunderstandings
- The time of applying does not by itself fix the NAV of a purchase: the money has to be available to the scheme before the cut-off.
- There is no ₹2 lakh threshold any more: the rule applies whatever the amount.
- A liquid fund purchase before the cut-off does not get that day's NAV: it gets the previous day's closing NAV.
- The 7:00 PM cut-off is not general: it is for online redemption requests in overnight funds.
Questions people ask
What is a business day?
A day on which the money markets are open. A request after the cut-off is treated as received on the next such day.
Does an instant online payment at 3:05 PM get that day's NAV?
No. The money became available after the 3:00 PM cut-off, so the next business day's NAV applies.
Do the cut-offs apply to ETF units bought on a stock exchange?
No. Units bought or sold on an exchange trade at market price, outside these cut-offs.
What this lesson relies on
- SEBI Master Circular for Mutual Funds (20 March 2026) — applicable NAV, cut-off timings and time stamping, including the overnight-fund online redemption cut-off in force from 1 June 2025
This lesson was reviewed independently against these sources on 8 October 2026. Rules change: check the current regulation, scheme document or policy wording before relying on any figure. This is education, not advice.