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Finance minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the Union government will launch a unified ‘Single Securities Market Code’ in order to streamline the market. While presenting the Union budget for FY21-22, the FM said that market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will be notified as the regulator for a gold exchange. Furhter, the government would create a permanent institutional framework for purchasing investment-grade debt securities.
The unified ‘Securities Market Code’ will include SEBI Act, Govt Securities Act and Depositories Act. All these Acts will be amended for the Code.
The move is aimed at making Indian corporate legal framework simpler, business-friendly and, hopefully, it will help reduce compliance costs. The Securities Market Code is in line with previous discussions on the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA). The Code will help in streamlining the multiple laws, ordinances, guidelines and regulations.