From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday said the recent meeting and actions by the SEBI board subsequent to the Supreme Court’s expert committee report on the Adani megascam, points to a clear admission of guilt by the regulatory body.
In a statement, its general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh said the expert committee used soft but damning language regarding SEBI’s approach to the Adani Megascam. “It claimed that there was no regulatory failure by SEBI, but rather ‘piquantly’ went on to describe a number of major regulatory failures, including the rewriting of rules that allowed opaque overseas funds to be invested in Adani companies in huge quantity,” he said.
Jairam said: “The reintroduction of strict reporting rules following SEBI board’s June 28 meeting represents a public admission of guilt by the regulatory body. The SEBI board accepts that it needs to do more to prevent the “circumvention of regulations such as the requirement for Minimum Public Shareholding,’ precisely the allegations made against the Adani group.
“It has therefore mandated “additional granular level disclosures regarding ownership, economic interest and control” for foreign portfolio investors who hold more than 50% of their India assets in a single corporate group or more than Rs 25,000 crore in Indian Markets. It also states that the Prevention of Money Launcering Rules on (actual) beneficial ownership were tightened in March 2023.”
Jairam asserted that none of these steps would have been possible without the wide public outrage over the Modani revelations and the Congress Party’s relentless “Hum Adani ke hain kaun” series of 100 questions that put the government under tremedous pressure to act. He said despite the interested parties painting the expert committee report as a “clean chit,” all the actions taken subsequently by SEBI indicate an admission of guilt and a belated attempt to increase transparency regarding the financial flows.
He said SEBI’s own report, scheduled for August 14, is awaited. “We look forward to clarity on important questions such as the origins of the shady Rs 20,000 crore of opaque foreign funds that flew into Adani companies.”
Jairam Ramesh again stressed on the Congress stand that only a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) can fully unravel the Modani Megascam by delving into PM Modi’s crony links with the Adani group and how he has personally facilitated their business in India and abroad by changing the laws, rules and regulations to help his close friends. “As we have always said, the Expert Committee and SEBI’s own investigations are limited in scope.
