With a view to improving transparency and corporate governance, the Securities and Exchange Board of India on Monday made it mandatory for all listed companies to disclose their financial results within 45 days from the end of every quarter.
Companies would also be required to disclose their audited financial statements within 60 days of every financial year end, SEBI said while amending the equity listing agreement.
“It has been decided that listed entities shall disclose, on a standalone basis or on a consolidated basis, their quarterly (audited or unaudited with limited review) financial results within 45 days of the end of every quarter,” SEBI said in a circular. Earlier, companies had to disclose their results 30 or 60 days after the end of each quarter.
The market watchdog said the decision was aimed at streamlining submission of financial results by making it uniform and at reducing the timeline for submission of the same to the stock exchanges.
It has also said turnover, profit after tax and profit before tax should be mentioned on a standalone basis at the time of presenting the consolidated results.
SEBI has also mandated companies to disclose their asset-liability position within 45 days of every six months.
“With a view to having more frequent disclosure of the asset-liability position of entities, it has been decided that listed entities shall disclose within 45 days from the end of the half year, as a note to their half-yearly financial results, a statement of assets and liabilities in the specified format,” SEBI said.
At present, shareholders have access to the statement of assets and liabilities of the listed entity and its solvency position only on an annual basis.
SEBI further said appointment of chief financial officer (CFO) should be approved first by the audit committee before the management gives its nod, to ensure that the CFO of a company has adequate expertise to review and certify financial statements.
Listed companies would also require to submit to the stock exchanges the auditors' certificate that the accounting treatment in merger and amalgamation schemes is in compliance with accounting standards.
SEBI also said audit reports of only those auditors would be accepted who have undergone accounting regulator ICAI's peer review process.
