Jet Airways, Adani Ports and many PSUs among companies fined
Several public sector companies, including Power Finance Corporation, Bharat Electronics, Hindustan Copper, Dredging Corporation, BHEL, Oil India, IOC, New India Assurance, NHPC and MOIL, have attracted penalty from stock exchange NSE for varied reasons of non-compliance. The total penalty imposed on the non-compliant companies is little over Rs. 2.84 crore, according to NSE data. BSE has also imposed fines on several companies. NSE on Wednesday imposed fines on 250 companies and the penalty was in the range of Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 4.5 lakh for non-compliance with various listing regulations for the quarter ended March 31, 2019. Two IL&FS group firms — IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company & IL&FS Transportation— Jet Airways, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, InterGlobe Aviation, Jindal Steel & Power, Manappuram Finance, Hindustan Zinc, BASF India, Shree Renuka Sugars, Fortis Healthcare, Omaxe, Ess Dee Aluminium, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals and Nagarjuna Fertilizers are some of the prominent companies which have been fined. The move is in accordance with markets regulator SEBI’s circular that has put in place a standard operating procedure to check non-compliance with provisions of (Listing obligations Disclosure Requirement) regulations.
LODR regulations
In all, 31 companies have been levied the highest penalty of Rs. 45 lakh for violating regulation 17 of LODR regulations that pertains to composition of board of directors. Among them are Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, Anant Raj, Dredging Corporation, Power Finance Corporation, BEL, Hindustan Copper, BHEL, Oil India, IOC, NLC India, SJVN, PAE, ThiruArooran Sugars, Madras Fertilizers, Container Corporation, Bharat Dynamics and Ircon International. For the same violation, Jet Airways was penalised Rs. 4.15 lakh, IL&FS Engineering (Rs. 3.7 lakh), Punj Lloyd (Rs. 3.35 lakh) and IL&FS Transportation (Rs. 2.95 lakh). Six companies — Blue Blends (I), Country Condo’s, Chromatic India, Atlanta, Mirc Electronics and EIH Associated Hotels — were penalised Rs. 1,000 for violation of regulation 13(3), which relates to non-submission of investor compliant statement within 21 days from the end of each quarter.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in May, 2018 came out with a mechanism to check non-compliance of listing conditions, wherein exchanges have been given power to freeze the holdings of the promoter and promoter group, imposing fine on the companies and even suspend the trading of companies.
