In an attempt to check any misuse for channelising black money, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has tightened Participatory Notes (P-Notes) norms by levying a regulatory fee of $1,000 on each instrument issued by foreign investors and barred their issuance for non-hedging or speculative purposes. On the other hand, markets regulator SEBI also decided to ease the entry rules for foreign portfolio investors (FPI) willing to invest directly in Indian markets rather than via P-Notes or offshore derivative instruments (ODIs).
Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi has said that the regulator approved a proposal to tighten the rules for P-Notes through imposition of a regulatory fee on issuers of such instruments. However, he said that there is no proposal to completely ban these instruments as some new foreign investors tend to use them to test the Indian markets first before registering. He also noted that regulator would want foreign investors to come directly but P-Notes also have their usefulness. He added that board has taken decisions to facilitate the resolution of distressed assets, thereby contributing to the efforts made by the RBI and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India.
The new measures, which follow a slew of other steps taken by SEBI in the recent past, come at a time when the value of foreign investments through P-Notes or ODIs had already fallen to a four-month low of about Rs 1.68 lakh crore by April-end. While such investments used to account for more than half of overall foreign portfolio investments at one point of time, their share has now fallen to just 6 percent. Still, concerns remain that P-Notes are misused by some to channelise black money from abroad into the country through the stock market.
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