Sebi may soon make BRs mandatory for top 500 cos

To ensure better compliance with corporate governance norms, Sebi may expand list of companies required to submit annual 'business responsibility report' to the market regulator, to the country's top 500 corporates.
Presently, the business responsibility reports (BRs) are mandatory for top 100-listed entities based on market capitalisation at BSE and NSE.
"As part of corporate governance efforts we are now looking at expanding this universe say from top 100 to top 500 companies to submit business responsibility reports," Sebi chairman U K Sinha said here.
"We hope to take a decision in this regard very soon," he said at a Ficci conference on Indian capital markets.

The BRs are submitted by the companies along with annual reports and indicate, among others, the number of complaints related to child labour, forced labour, involuntary labour and sexual harassment during a financial year.
On start-up listing norms, the Sebi chairman told reporters that in the two rounds of meeting with various start-ups, the companies have said they have no issues with regard to Sebi norms.

However, some of them have said they may face problems since they have PE investors based overseas and were therefore under pressure to list outside India, Sinha said.
"It is a dialogue process which has to start, but they have shown no problem as far as our regulations are concerned," he said.

On the issue of REITS (Real Estate Investment Trust), Sinha said that while norms are in place, the government has received a few proposals in matter of taxes.
"We are in dialogue with tax authority and I hope the government will take a favourable view on REITs," he said.
On Sebi plans for commodity markets, he said the regulator's focus at this stage is to assure that it is "fully in control of the new responsibility".
"However, there have been demands of trading in new products and allowing new participants like foreign portfolio investors... These new developments will be made in next few months," Sinha added.