Sebi may not accept Achuthan report in toto

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) board in its meeting tomorrow is likely to accept only part of the Achuthan panel report on the new takeover code, according to a senior official.

The board meeting is expected to clear the guidelines for infrastructure debt fund and come out with a new company takeover code.

Besides, a uniform Know-Your-Customer (KYC) norm that would be applicable on all the market players is also likely to be cleared by the board, chaired by Sebi chairman UK Sinha.

"Achuthan Committee's report on takeover code is high on agenda...But the board may not agree to it in entirety and only accept some of them," a senior official said.

The committee had recommended 100% open offer for company takeover, doing away with non-compete fee and hiking open offer trigger limit to 25%.

The official further said the board may also clear guidelines for infrastructure debt fund, which was proposed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Budget.

In order to raise long-term resources for funding the infrastructure sector, the government has already announced that Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) could be set up either as a company or trust.

The requirement of infrastructure in the 12th Plan has been pegged at $1 trillion.

Other key issues such as eligibility criteria for IPOs and electronic reporting on a Sebi unified platform are also on the agenda of the meeting, sources added.

On the issue of uniform KYC norms for players like FIIs, mutual funds and brokerage customers, the official said: "As of now there are separate KYC norms for different segments. In order to ensure seamless identification of customers in the securities market, we want to have an uniform KYC."

The board was earlier slated to meet on June 30, which got postponed, as Sebi chairman U K Sinha was then visiting US along with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.