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'Govt mulling proposal to allow foreign firms to list on Indian bourses'

The Securities and Exchange Board of India, or SEBI, has moved a proposal for listing of foreign companies on Indian stock exchanges.

The government is examining the proposal, Minister of State for Finance Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil said in the Lok Sabha today.

According to SEBI, foreign institutional investors, or FIIs, had made a net investment of Rs 65.48 billion during the current year up to first half of April 2000 as compared to the net investment of Rs 14.76 billion during the corresponding period of the previous year.

The net investments made by FIIs during the last three years in the country are as follows:

• 1997-1998 ______ Rs 59.57 billion.
• 1998-1999 ______ Rs 15.84 billion.
• 1999-2000 ______ Rs 101.22 billion.

According to information provided by SEBI and the Reserve Bank of India, or RBI, data on unwound positions in the debt market is not maintained.

In order to attract FII investments, government makes necessary changes in the FII investment policy from time to time. Some of the changes made by the government are given below:

• Permitting FIIs to invest in government dated securities and treasury bills.
• Increasing individual investment limit of FIIs/sub-accounts from five per cent to ten per cent of the paid up capital of a company.
• Increasing the aggregate limit of FII investment in an individual company from 30 per cent to 40 per cent.

Action has been initiated to make comprehensive amendments to the RBI Act, Vikhe-Patil said.

Representations have been received largely in respect of the provisions relating to non-banking finance corporations, or NBFCs.

Every representation of input received from any source constitutes a valuable input in the ongoing process of ensuring that legislative provisions meet the requirements they are intended to meet.

A few cases of circulation of manufacture of fake coins have come to notice, Vikhe-Patil said.

He said there is no proposal to launch any new self-employment scheme to provide loans to the unemployed youths specifically for the other backward classes.

UNI

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