Corporates should run their own pension funds for their non-EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) category employees and invest funds in the equity market, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Chairman U. K. Sinha said here on Wednesday. This would make reliable, long-term capital available for investment.
Talking to media persons on the sidelines of the capital market summit, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here, he further explained that it was not easy for the government to make drastic changes and requested industry to come forward and take steps to improve market depth.
While acknowledging regulatory hurdles to initial public offerings (IPOs), Mr. Sinha also pointed out that reluctance on the part of companies to comply with the prescribed governance norms was equally responsible for the lacklustre IPO market. He advised companies not to push back but project best practices to attract domestic and international investors.
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Mr Sinha announced that SEBI was adopting measures to ensure that filing of information just once with the market regulator would be adequate compliance through the Annual Information Memorandum. This should be operational within three months. On adoption of other facilitative initiatives, Mr. Sinha said the KYC norms across the financial sector would be integrated with the co-operation of all other financial sector regulators. Mr Sinha also announced that revised ESOP guidelines, which would soon be issued by SEBI, would be progressive and would resolve existing anomalies.