The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is expected to submit its action taken report (ATR) on the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to the finance ministry by the end of April. In its report, JPC has made suggestions on the stock-market crash of March 2001 to the stock market regulator, including strengthening Sebi’s own market surveillance mechanism instead of depending on alerts provided by stock exchanges (SEs).The Sebi-appointed task force to co-ordinate the work on the preparation of ATR is expected to receive reports from various departments of Sebi by this week-end. After completing the compilation work and giving final touches, it will be submitted by next week to Sebi chairman G.N. Bajpai, who, in turn, will forward it to the ministry by the month-end. According to sources, the government is expected to table the ATR during the current budget session of Parliament. The budget session, which resumed on April 7 after a gap since the presentation of Budget on February 28, is expected to conclude on May 9. The Sebi task force, which was set up in January, was given three months to complete the job. The Sebi ATR is expected to contain the number of steps taken by Sebi, particularly on the issue of separate inspection department set up by it earlier this year.Sebi carved out an inspection department out of its secondary markets department to carry out inspection of SEs exclusively and is expected to cover all the capital market intermediaries, including stock brokers. Sebi’s move is in line with JPC recommendation which said: “The committee felt that the inter-exchange market surveillance group needs to be strengthened and there should be a formal system of information exchange among the exchanges.
