Why is the regulator avoiding a 'statutory' corporate filing system.
Sucheta Dalal
In early November, the central information commissioner ordered the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to reveal the names of 12 entities that had short-sold Reliance Petroleum shares in the derivatives market, just before Reliance Industries sold shares in the cash market. This has led to speculation that the Right to Information (RTI) Act will force SEBI to be more transparent. At Moneylife, we think otherwise. Not long ago, SEBI mindlessly refused to provide information on the performance of portfolio management schemes (PMS) citing fiduciary reasons. It did this even though PMS schemes are individually required to put the data on their website. Now any regulator knows that performance data is useful only if the investor can compare performance of schemes over a period. And it ought to be SEBI’s job to put out collated data to help investors, instead of the senseless rejection of a request for information.