Significant beneficial ownership rules: The ambiguity continues

Based on the concept of mere 'participation', potentially, all individuals holding key positions, namely, executive directors, CEOs, CFOs and COOs may be considered SBOs

The recent amendments introduced by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in the disclosure and reporting requirements with respect to significant beneficial owners (SBO) of Indian companies represent a fair attempt at resolving many questions that arose the first time over and their intent cannot be doubted. However, two things have happened despite the amendments. First, the MCA may have ended up narrowing the net of individuals who are now required to make disclosures; second, there is continuing ambiguity around some issues, with a few more added. In this backdrop, it is entirely possible that we may not have seen