How long can I hold the shares of a company? What are the changes applied in holding shares for the long term?

You could hold stock in your demat account or in physical form as long as you want. Some people keep it for 1 days while others keep it for 20 - 30 years.

For example, many people hold SBI shares for 30+ years now in paper or demat format.

The stock splits and dividends are paid to you by cheque or by direct deposit in the bank account linked to your demat account.

There is no brokerage charge on holding the shares of a company. Brokerage is charged at the time when you buy or sell the share through a stockbroker.

But if your brokerage charge Annual Maintenance Charge (AMC), you have to pay this fee every year. Brokers like ICICI Direct, HDFC Direct etc charge around Rs 1200 per year AMC for the demat account.

Brokers like ProStocks offers zero AMC account if you pay Rs 1000 one time refundable deposit. They are equally safe as actually the demat accounts are held by CDSL or NSDL, a centralized depository services. The brokers just provide intermediary services.