Sebi working to streamline foreign investment routes

Market regulator to prepare norns to rationalise foreign investments, based on guidance of Working Group on Foreign Investment in India

The government today said Sebi is in the process of preparing guidelines to harmonise various routes for making foreign investments in the country's stock market.

The market regulator is preparing the guidelines in consultations with the Reserve Bank of India and the government, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

"Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is in the process of preparing guidelines to rationalise/harmonise different routes for foreign portfolio investment in consultation with the RBI and Government of India," Meena said.

The basic aim is to have uniform guidelines in place for various categories of investors such as foreign institutional investors.

At its board meeting last month, Sebi had decided to prepare draft guidelines to rationalise foreign investments. These norms would be based on the guidance of the Working Group on Foreign Investment in India (WGFII).

The working group was set up in November 2009 to look at various types of foreign fund flows, that were taking advantages of arbitrage across the respective standalone regulations.

In its report in July 2010, the working group had recommended dissolution of various categories of investors such as FII and FVCI (Foreign Venture Capital Investors) into QFI- a single window for portfolio investment in India that does not distinguish between investors.