MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said on Monday it would empower the country's exchanges to enforce rules on corporate disclosures at listed companies, aiming to improve transparency, especially of market-sensitive information.
The capital market regulator would allow the country's stock exchanges to set up a separate monitoring unit for corporate disclosures and report instances of non-compliance to the regulator.
SEBI also requested exchanges to beef up their compliance departments and authorised them to seek additional disclosures from listed companies if needed.
Listed companies in India are currently required to disclose details about their shareholding pattern, financial results and other market-moving information regularly, but enforcement has been lax.
"Concerns have been raised that even though listed companies make disclosures to stock exchanges within the time frame stipulated under the Listing Agreement, the contents of the disclosures made by such companies are not adequate and accurate," SEBI said in a seven-page order.
SEBI Chairman U.K. Sinha on Friday criticised some companies for not even filing their quarterly result statements, without citing any specific instances.
"This can't be allowed to go on," he had said at a regulatory conference.
SEBI has stepped up its rules to protect small investors as well as to reduce the clout held by so-called "promoters" of a company, or key stakeholders who have a disproportionate say on management appointments and day-to-day operations.
Last month SEBI announced more stringent rules to ensure that promoters report their trades in their company's securities, and earlier this year also made it mandatory for listed companies to have at least 25 percent of shares held by the public. (Reporting by Himank Sharma; Editing by Rafael Nam and Subhranshu Sahu)
