new delhi: Reacting on SEBI’s (Securities and Exchange Board of India) decision to mandate enhanced disclosure requirements for some foreign portfolio investors, the Congress on Friday said that it points to a “clear admission of guilt” by the market regulator in the wake of the Supreme Court’s expert committee recommendations.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh asserted that SEBI’s investigation has limited scope and only a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe can fully unravel the Adani “scam.”
The Congress further said that the party leaders are also awaiting the SEBI report slated for August 14 that would answer key questions on the origins of the Rs 20,000 crore “opaque foreign funds” flowing into Adani group of companies.
“The Supreme Court’s Expert Committee used soft but damning language regarding SEBI’s approach to the Adani mega scam. It claimed that there was no regulatory failure by SEBI but rather ‘piquantly’ went on to describe a number of major regulatory failings, including the rewriting of rules that allowed opaque overseas funds to be invested in Adani companies in huge quantities,” he said.
“The reintroduction of strict reporting rules following the SEBI board’s June 28, 2023 meeting represents a public admission of guilt by the regulatory body,” he said.
Sharing the statement on Twitter, Ramesh said: “....the actions it (SEBI) has taken since the Supreme Court’s Expert Committee report on the Adani mega scam pointing to a clear admission of guilt by the regulatory body.” The Congress leader further said that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) accepts that it needs to do more to prevent the “circumvention of regulations such as the requirement for Minimum public shareholding”, precisely the allegation made against the Adani Group.
It has, therefore, mandated “additional granular level disclosures regarding ownership, economic interest, and control” for foreign portfolio investors who hold more than 50 per cent of their India assets in a single corporate group or more than Rs 25,000 crore in Indian markets, he said.
It also states that the Prevention of Money Laundering Rules on beneficial (actual) ownership were tightened in March 2023, the Congress leader noted.
“None of these steps would have been possible without the wide public outrage over the Modani revelations and the Congress party’s relentless ‘Hum Adanike Hain Kaun-HAHK series’ of 100 questions that put the government under tremendous pressure to act.
“Despite desperate attempts by interested parties to paint the Expert Committee’s report as a ‘clean chit’, all the actions taken subsequently by SEBI indicate an admission of guilt and a belated attempt to increase transparency regarding financial flows,” Jairam Ramesh said.