Stock market regulator SEBI is all for mutual fund houses handling pension money. Addressing the CII mutual fund summit here, Mr U.K. Sinha, Chairman said, “Nothing prevents an asset manager to come to SEBI and seek approval for a scheme which has pension as its theme. Whether the scheme will qualify for tax exemption or not may be an issue. SEBI is willing to recommend to the Government that if it is a pension scheme it should get similar treatment.”
SEBI was already in touch with tax authorities and had been given to understand that pension schemes handled by mutual funds would be treated similar to other pension funds after the direct tax code comes in.
SEBI was open to ideas and had spoken to investor associations twice in the last two months.
IPO guidelines
The regulator will introduce a detailed set of IPO guidelines in the next two to three months with a concept of a safety margin for investors as a measure of investor protection, he said.
On the Rajiv Gandhi equity savings scheme, Mr Sinha said that SEBI was talking to the Government on the use of mutual fund route for investors coming into the market for the first time through this scheme.
On the reduction in use of participatory notes by FIIs, he said it was bound to happen with more people coming through the QFI route.