UCC, PAN to be must for those transacting on commodity bourses

Markets regulator Sebi on Friday made Unique Client Code (UCC) and Permanent Account Number (PAN) mandatory for all the persons transacting on commodity exchanges. "It shall be mandatory for the members of the commodity derivatives exchanges to use UCC for all clients transacting on the commodity derivatives exchanges," Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a circular. It said PAN would be sole identification number and mandatory for all entities/persons who are desirous of transacting on the exchanges.

However, investors residing in Sikkim are exempted from the mandatory requirement of PAN. The exchanges should, however, ensure a system of proper verification to verify that such investors are residents of Sikkim. The exchanges would have to ensure that the members upload details of PAN so collected to the exchanges as part of UCC and verify the documents.

Member would also be required to furnish the documents of their clients to the commodity exchanges and the same would be updated on a monthly basis. Such information for a specific month should reach the exchange within seven working days of the following month.

The exchanges would impose penalty on the member at the rate of 1 per cent of the value of every trade that has been carried out by the member without uploading the UCC details of the clients.The penalty collected by the exchanges would be transferred to the Investor protection Fund (IPF).