INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - March 1^st - March 15^th - 2008

EASIER NORMS FOR FIIS, SEBI TO CUT TIME LAG IN LISTING OF SHARES, FEES PAYABLE BY MARKET PLAYERS SLASHED UP TO 80%

Capital market regulator Sebi has said that it has slashed the fees payable by various market players up to 80%. It will also reduce the gap between opening of an issue and listing of the shares and make the registration norms for foreign institutional investors (FIIs) more flexible.

The fees payable by mutual funds, custodians and those who file offer documents have been cut by as much as 80% from April 1, 2008, Sebi chairman CB Bhave told reporters here after a meeting of the regulator's board. It has also slashed the fee for offer documents for buyback of securities as well as the registration fee for venture capital funds.

The fee for filing offer documents for public issue and mutual funds has been lowered from 0.03% of the amount raised to 0.005%. While the cap on the fee for a public offer is Rs 3 crore, the same for mutual funds is Rs 50 lakh. The annual registration fee for custodians has been slashed from 0.001% to 0.0005% of assets under custody.

Sebi has reduced the registration fee for venture capital funds from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 5 lakh. The fee for rights issue offer documents has been slashed from 0.05% to 0.005%, subject to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh, Mr Bhave said. The fee for filing offer documents for buyback of securities has been reduced from 0.05% to 0.125%, subject to a maximum of Rs 3 crore.

Mr Bhave said Sebi has set up a panel to examine how to compress the IPO process. "Institutional investors tend to argue that they put in a lot of money that cannot be locked in for such a long time. Secondly, some people have raised the issue of funds that remain with banks. That issue will also be automatically addressed once we reduce the gap," he said.