Amend disclosure norms

SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) 2015’s Regulation 46 mandates public listed companies to update investor-related information on its website.

Many companies also diligently update the website with press releases and post archives and transcripts of webcasts/earning calls of recently concluded meetings/investor events. It is further suggested to amend regulation 46 of SEBI (LODR) Regulations 2015 to include press releases, archives/transcripts of webcasts, and earning calls as an optional requirement to be uploaded by the companies.

The suggestion to amend Regulation 46 of SEBI (LODR) Regulations 2015 will benefit analysts, investors, media, and other relevant stakeholders to stay abreast of the updates through the website and social media. The companies on the other hand will gain immense reach to their stakeholders.

Varun Dambal

Bengaluru

 

Fuel price woes

At the start of the year, the price of petrol was around ₹84 per litre in Delhi. After 43 hikes it has now touched ₹100 per litre. Diesel costs aren’t far behind. The price of Brent crude oil has touched $75 per barrel and is on a rising trend. The likely petrol price at the end of the year is anybody’s guess.

The price hikes were justified stating that the tax revenue garnered from petroleum products, were crucial for development expenditure, free vaccination supplies and assistance to farmers. Bringing petroleum products under the GST net, too, is not a viable alternative, as it limits the tax levy to 28 per cent, to be shared between the Union and the States, whereas the taxes now comprise over 69 per cent of the pump price of the two fuels.

If Oil Marketing Companies, who are free to raise prices, make huge profits, the Centre benefits from higher dividends. The dynamic pricing method benefits private refiners and marketing companies too.

So higher petroleum products’ prices and the daily rise are here to stay.

Haridasan Rajan

Kozhikode

Crop residue worries

Apropos ‘Managing crop residue’ (June 25), the unbearable air pollution caused by stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana and Western Utter Pradesh is posing serious problems. Due to the cost factor, farmers are unable to adopt the various measures to curb pollution. Use of Happy Seeder machine where the new crop can be sowed on the residue of the previous crop is a pragmatic solution. Happy Seeder protects soil moisture, soil structure and increases soil fertility and control erosion. The government must provide subsidies to enable greater adoption of Happy Seeder. Cluster farming too can be looked at.

NR Nagarajan

Sivakasi

‘Folk-to-future’ model

With reference to the article ‘PM calls for a ‘folk-to-future’ model for toy industry to get more global play’ (June 25), though it is tough to compete with Chinese toys steps can be initiated to boost our toy industry. Schools, both private and government, must be mandated to buy only Indian-made toys. Secondly, story telling should be compulsorily introduced in all schools, which will help greater use of toys. Further local festivals and their importance can be explained to children with the help of toys. For example the Batakkamma festival of Telangana, Onam of Kerala , Bihu festival of Assam can be explained to students with the help of toys and dolls, thus giving huge demand for locally made toys. Finally boosting rural tourism can also play an important role in boosting the toy industries. The villages /towns near popular toy clusters like Channapatna, Kondapalli, Thanjavur, Dhubri and Morbi should be developed into tourist destinations so that when tourists visit these places, they can buy/popularize the toys manufactured at these centres.

Veena Shenoy

Thane

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send your letters by email to bleditor@thehindu.co.in or by post to ‘Letters to the Editor’, The Hindu Business Line, Kasturi Buildings, 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.