SEBI directs listed companies to keep shareholders informed

Mumbai, Apr 26 (UNI) As part of its efforts to bring better transparency in market deals, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) today directed the listed companies to 'supply copy of complete and full balance sheet, profit and loss account, directors report' to each of their shareholders and to 'any member of the exchange' on receipt of a written requests.

''This requirement has been stipulated at a time when the information dissemination was at the barest minimum and annual reports of the company becomes the only mean to shareholders to keep themselves informed about the affairs of the company,'' SEBI opined in a document sent to the listed companies.

Addressing the industrial heads in Mumbai at a meeting today, SEBI chairman D Damodaran said the companies will now be able to use a single filing platform unlike the past practice of filing reports separately to BSE and NSE.

Dubbed as a common platform for electronic filing and information dissemination, the companies can now file reports in www.corpfiling.co.in which had become fully operational since March 31, 2007 with the phasing out of Electronic Data Information Filing and Retrieval System (EDIFAR).

The new directive has followed an amendment of Clause 32 of the equity listing agreement and will come in to force with immediate effect, said SEBI.

SEBI is also in favor of the suggestion put forward by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry(FICCI), to allow a senior member of FICCI associate with the operations of the market regulator.

UNI