Sebi comes out with biz responsibility disclosure format

Coming out with the format for business responsibility report, capital markets watchdog Sebi today asked listed firms to disclose sexual harassment complaints as well as details about their compliance with various social and governance requirements.
The business responsibility reports (BRR) are mandatory for top 100-listed entities based on market capitalisation at BSE and NSE.
According to Sebi regulation, listed companies have to mandatorily submit an annual BR report.
However, the regulator said those listed entities which have been submitting sustainability reports to overseas regulatory agencies/stakeholders based on internationally accepted reporting frameworks are not required to prepare a separate report but they furnish the same to their stakeholders.

Further, such entities will have to provide details of the framework under which their BR report has been prepared, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a circular.
Under the format, firms will have to provide general information about themselves, financial details like total turnover, profit after taxes and total spending on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and details about their subsidiary and whether the subsidiary has participated in business responsibility initiatives.

Also, firms need to disclose about details of the director responsible for implementation of the BRR policy.
Further, these entities need to inform about governance related to BRR.

The BR report should have information about the number of stakeholder complaints received in the past financial year and and the percentage of grievances satisfactorily resolved by the management. This information should be furnished in about 50 words.
In the report, the firm will have to provide details about the number of complaints and pending ones related to child labour, forced labour, involuntary labour, sexual harassment and discriminatory employment during a financial year.
Firms are also required to come out with information on what percentage of customer complaints/consumer cases are pending.
In the report, the firms need to inform about the nine broad principles to assess compliance with environmental, social and governance norms -- as mentioned by the Sebi -- also say that businesses should not engage in practices that are 'abusive, corrupt, or anti-competition'.

This circular would come into force with effect from 90 days of notifications of listing regulations i.E. September 2, 2015.