Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has provided exemptions for off-shore funds from submitting physical forms in wake of the Corona outbreak, said people privy to the development.
FPIs will now be able to submit scanned or electronic documents for various purposes including renewal of their license and annual compliance documents, an option that wasnt available for them earlier.ET had reported on Monday that leading FPIs were planning to approach Sebi to request for doing away with physical forms in the wake of Corona outbreak.It has become really difficult for funds to collect and send physical documents.
Most of the funds have asked their employees to work from home and some of them are even stuck in lock-downs, said a regulatory consultant of a big four tax firm.Sebi has not provided any relaxation when it comes to new fund registrations.
In other words, off-shore funds seeking a fresh FPI license will be required to send physical documents.We are requesting Sebi to allow us to use the old forms for FPI registrations since the new common application form will require lot of physical documents, said an FPI broker.Last month Sebi had notified a new application for FPIs that is set to become mandatory.The development will ease to concerns of nearly 300 foreign funds whose license is coming up for renewal in the next one month.
We are glad the issue has been addressed, said a global custodian.
If FPI licenses collapse or face investing curbs, investors would resort to abrupt selling triggering market crashes,