Sebi sets up panel for corporate goverance

NEW DELHI, Mar 12: The Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI has set up a committee for improvement of corporate goverance and ac...

NEW DELHI, Mar 12: The Securities and Exchange Board of India SEBI has set up a committee for improvement of corporate goverance and accounting standards in the country.

The 15-member committee headed by Y H Malegam, former president of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, would look into the improvement in the accounting disclosure norms in line with the listing norms of stock exchanges.

8220;Members of the committee would suggest on better transparency in presentation of the financial statement of companies and audit report of auditors,8221; Sebi chairman D R Mehta told reporters after a seminar on convention on people8217;s campaign against corruption.

He said the group comprises officials of Department of Company Affairs DCA, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India ICAI, Institute of Company Secretaries of India ICSI. In addition, Sebi officials are also members of the committee.

Mehta said industry chambers or big corporates might also be included in the committee in near future. Sebichairman said the new committee had been set up so that corporates could adopt accounting standards on an international level which in turn would help better corporate governance.

He said the objective is to move towards United States Generally Accepted Accounting Practices GAAP system.

Mehta said group accounting is also an important area in which the committee would look into along with the provision of deferred tax payment liability.

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Sebi chairman said the market regulator is also looking into educating investors about their rights through media campaign. The campaign would be published in various newspapers which would highlight rights of investors as sharehloders in a company.

Sebi has already started the investor education programme through Unit Trust of India UTI and Reliance Industries. A booklet, published by Sebi, containing details of investor protection measures along with their rights has been sent to investors along with the annual reports of UTI and Reliance.

8220;Since theseorganisations have large number of units and shareholders this is a better medium for educating investors,8221; Mehta said. Sebi chairman said a campaign through television would also be started soon to educate the investors.