Sebi slaps Rs 10 lakh fine on Reliance Commercial Finance for defying norms

Reliance Commercial Finance has been directed to pay the fine within 45 days

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Wednesday imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL) for flouting disclosure norms.

Reliance Commercial Finance, whose debt securities are listed on the stock exchanges, has been directed to pay the fine within 45 days.

In its order, Sebi found that RCFL did not give prior intimation to the stock exchange (at least 11 working days before the date) with respect to the due date of payment of interest on certain non-convertible debentures (NCDs) and also made a delay in submission of the record date.

Also, it did not submit a certificate to the stock exchange within two days of the interest or principal or both becoming due that it has made timely payment of such obligations in respect of the NCDs.

"I note that from the qualified opinion of the statutory auditor in the audited financial result of RCFL for the half year ended March 31, 2020, it appeared that proceeds raised from issue of debt securities/ NCDs may have been diverted towards certain bodies corporate including group companies which was not disclosed by the noticee (RCFL)," Sebi Adjudicating Officer G Ramar said.

Under the rules, the company was required to submit to the stock exchange on a half yearly basis along with the half yearly financial results, a statement indicating material deviations, if any, in the use of proceeds of issue of debt securities and non-convertible redeemable preference shares from the objects stated in the offer document.

In addition, the company had not provided its annual report along with a copy of certificate from its statutory auditors in respect of utilisation of funds to the debenture trustee.

The company has stated that the non-compliances had happened under circumstances beyond its control, while Sebi agreed on the limited point that it was difficult for the firm to be compliant with the timeline for disclosures due to the then prevailing situations during the period of COVID-19 lockdown.

The regulator, which examined the non-compliances of the regulatory norms by RCFL from April 2019 to March 2020, found that the company did not comply with LODR (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) rules.