{"id":5255,"date":"2020-03-23T19:31:05","date_gmt":"2020-03-23T14:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/?p=5255"},"modified":"2020-03-23T19:56:15","modified_gmt":"2020-03-23T14:26:15","slug":"covid-19-outbreak-sebi-relaxes-compliance-requirements-for-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/covid-19-outbreak-sebi-relaxes-compliance-requirements-for-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid-19 Outbreak: SEBI Relaxes Compliance Requirements for Companies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In the wake of global Coronavirus outbreak, the <strong>Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)<\/strong><sup><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sebi.gov.in\/\"><strong>[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/sup> on Thursday relaxed the deadline for complying with requirements for certain filings under SEBI. Companies, which had 45 days from the end of the quarter to file their quarterly earnings, will now get an extra 45 days. Among other relaxations in Compliance Requirements for Companies, <strong><em>SEBI gave a one-month extension for Companies to file their annual audited figures.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SEBI decided to relax compliance requirements to help\nCompanies cope with the restrictions imposed by the government to contain the\nspread of coronavirus pandemic. As per a survey reported by Economic Times,\nover 50 per cent of Indian Companies see an impact on their operations and\nnearly 80 per cent have witnessed a decline in cash flows. Coronavirus pandemic\nhas significantly impacted the global economy, and as it continues to grow, <strong><em>global\nstock markets are seeing their sharpest falls since the 2008 financial crisis. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>SEBI in the circular\nsaid:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"shadow1\">&#8220;Development arising due to the spread of the virus have warranted the need for temporary relaxation in compliance requirements of listed entities.&#8221;<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Relaxations offered by SEBI in Compliance Requirements for Companies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Considering the CoVID 19 pandemic, SEBI decided to grant\ntemporary relaxations to listed entities from certain compliance stipulations.\nCoronavirus has affected populations around the world and has restricted the\nfree movement of people, thereby hampering businesses and day to day\nfunctioning of companies. As a relief to Companies SEBI decided to grant\nfollowing relaxations to listed entities w.r.t. the quarter\/financial year\nending March 31, 2020:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>SEBI has extended the deadline for publicly\ntraded companies and gave them a 45-day relaxation to file their fourth-quarter\nresults. Companies, which had 45 days from the end of the quarter to file their\nquarterly earnings, will now get an extra 45 days. The due date has been\nextended until May 15, 2020.<\/li><li>The market regulator also extended the deadline\nfor annual audited figures of companies by one month.&nbsp; Generally, companies are required to file\ntheir annual results within 60 days from the end of a financial year. The due\ndate for submitting results for the year ending March 31 has been extended till\nJune 30, 2020.<\/li><li>SEBI also extended the deadline for submitting\ngovernance reports by a month and quarterly shareholding patterns by three\nweeks. The current due date for submitting governance report for this quarter\nis April 15, 2020, which now has been extended till May 15, 2020. The due date\nfor submitting quarterly shareholding patterns has been shifted from April 21\nto May 15, 2020.<\/li><li>In further relaxations; SEBI added, &#8220;The\nboard of directors and the audit committee of the listed entity are exempted\nfrom observing the stipulated time gap between two meetings for the meeting\nheld or proposed to be held the period of December 1, 2019, and June 30\n2020.&#8221;However, SEBI said the Board of Directors and audit committees would\nhave to ensure that they meet at least four times a year under-listed regulations.\nGenerally, the Board of Directors or Audit Committee need to meet at least four\ntimes a year, with a maximum gap of 128 between any two meetings.<\/li><li>Further, the deadline for submission of\nquarterly shareholding pattern and statement of investor complaint report has\nbeen extended by three weeks from April 21, 2020, to May 15, 2020.<\/li><li>In addition, SEBI has extended the deadline for\nfiling of half-yearly compliance certificate on share transfer facility and\nsecretarial compliance report by one month to May 15 and June 30, 2020,\nrespectively.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Extended Due Dates of Compliances<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"table table-bordered\"><tbody><tr><td>\n  <strong>Compliance<\/strong>\n  <\/td><td>\n  <strong>Current Due Date<\/strong>\n  <\/td><td>\n  <strong>Extended Due Date<\/strong>\n  <\/td><td>\n  <strong>Period of Extension<\/strong>\n  <\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\n  Compliance certificate on share transfer facility\n  <\/td><td>\n  April 30, 2020\n  <\/td><td>\n  May 30, 2020\n  <\/td><td>\n  1 month\n  <\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\n  Statement of Investor complaints\n  <\/td><td>\n  April 21, 2020\n  <\/td><td>\n  May 15, 2020\n  <\/td><td>\n  3 weeks approx.\n  <\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\n  Secretarial Compliance Report\n  <\/td><td>\n  May 30, 2020\n  <\/td><td>\n  June 30, 2020\n  <\/td><td>\n  1 month\n  <\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\n  Corporate Governance Report\n  <\/td><td>\n  April 15, 2020\n  <\/td><td>\n  May 15, 2020\n  <\/td><td>\n  1 month\n  <\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\n  Adoption and Publication of Financial Results\n  Unaudited\n  Audited\n  <\/td><td>\n  &nbsp;\n  &nbsp;\n  &nbsp;\n  May 15, 2020\n  May 30, 2020\n  <\/td><td>\n  &nbsp;\n  &nbsp;\n  &nbsp;\n  June 30, 2020\n  June 30, 2020\n  <\/td><td>\n  &nbsp;\n  &nbsp;\n  &nbsp;\n  45 days\n  1 month\n  <\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\n  Shareholding Pattern\n  <\/td><td>\n  April 21, 2020\n  <\/td><td>\n  May 15, 2020\n  <\/td><td>\n  3 weeks approx.\n  <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<p>Amidst Coronavirus outbreak many Companies have announced <strong><em>work-from-home<\/em><\/strong>\nfor its employees thereby; SEBI&#8217;s decision of relaxing the compliance\nrequirements provided a huge relief to Companies and gave them the much needed\ntime to focus on their business in the midst of a <strong><em>global economic slowdown.<\/em><\/strong>\nFurther, this relaxation from SEBI will give more time to market regulators and\nbusiness leaders to asses potential accounting guidance due to Covid-19\noutbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the circular issued on Thursday <strong><em>SEBI\nfurther relaxed the compliance norms<\/em><\/strong> for listed entities that have\nlisted their debt securities such as <strong><em>non-convertible debentures and commercial\npapers<\/em><\/strong> in a recent circular issued on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SEBI extended the deadline for submitting half-yearly\nfinancial results for Non-Convertible debentures (NCDs), Non-Convertible\nRedeemable Preference Shares (NCRPS) and Commercial Papers (CPs) by 45 days\ntill June 30. Further, the regulator has given a time period of another 30 days\ntill June 30, for filing annual earnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Take Away<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Finance Minister recently tweeted; &#8220;In an ongoing exercise to ease the compliance burden during the <a href=\"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/coronavirus-outbreak-impact-on-global-economy\/\"><strong>Coronavirus outbreak<\/strong><\/a>, SEBI has decided to relax some compliance provisions with regard to listed entities that have listed their NCDs, NCRPS, CPs and municipal debt securities.&#8221; Before this, in a circular issued on Thursday last week, SEBI extended the deadline for annual audited figures of companies by one month. These decisions have been taken by SEBI in the wake of the outbreak of Covid-19, which has caused a worldwide lockdown, thereby hampering the businesses and day to day functioning of companies. SEBI relaxed various compliance requirements for Companies in the circular issued, and the circular will come into force with immediate effect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"text-left\"><b>Read our article<\/b>:<mark style=\"background: #fffd03 !important;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/amendments-to-sebi-mutual-funds-regulations-1996\/\">Amendments in the SEBI (Mutual Funds) Regulations, 1996<\/a><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n<a href=\"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/1584600148932.pdf\" class=\"pdfemb-viewer\" style=\"\" data-width=\"max\" data-height=\"max\"  data-toolbar=\"bottom\" data-toolbar-fixed=\"off\">1584600148932<br\/><\/a>\n<p class=\"wp-block-pdfemb-pdf-embedder-viewer\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the wake of global Coronavirus outbreak, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)[1] on Thursday relaxed the deadline for complying with requirements for certain filings under SEBI. Companies, which had 45 days from the end of the quarter to file their quarterly earnings, will now get an extra 45 days. Among other relaxations [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":5258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[153],"tags":[418],"acf":{"service_id":"215"},"authorName":"Shubham Chauhan","authorImageUrl":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/shubham-chauhan.jpg","authorDescription":"A passionate legal content writer, a nature enthusiast, an avid reader, and a part-time thinker. By means of conducting in-depth research on industry related topics, Shubham often builds flawless and intelligible legal content for populace from all walks of life.","postViews":4298,"readingTime":4,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5255"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5270,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5255\/revisions\/5270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/corpbiz.io\/learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}