BOI AXA Investment Managers, 5 others settle case with Sebi for Rs 3.92 crore BOI AXA Investment Managers and five persons on Wednesday settled with markets regulator Sebi a case pertaining to an alleged violation of market norms after paying Rs 3.92 crore towards the settlement amount.BOI AXA Investment Managers (now known as Bank of India Investment Managers) is an asset management company (AMC).Apart from BOI AXA, the five persons who settled the case are — Rajesh Chawathe, Sandeep Dasgupta, Jayati Dasgupta, Anurupa Dasgupta and Alok Singh. The order comes after the entities approached Sebi to settle the proceedings initiated against them “without admitting or denying the findings of fact and conclusions of law” through a settlement order.In the settlement order, Sebi said, “The adjudication proceedings initiated against applicants vide SCN dated May 2, 2022, are disposed of”.As per the order, the regulator conducted a thematic inspection of BOI AXA Mutual Fund for the period August 2018 to February 2019 to verify the books of accounts, records and other documents pertaining to the mutual fund with respect to Inter Scheme Transfers (ISTs) and valuation of downgraded debt securities. BOI AXA failed to value securities in accordance with fair valuations and also failed to follow its own approved valuation policy by arbitrarily deciding the figure of per-day provisioning and continued with per-day provisioning ignoring material events.It was also alleged that five persons failed to comply with the norms.Pending adjudication proceedings, the applicants proposed to settle the instant proceedings against them and filed settlement applications in July. Thereafter, Sebi’s committee recommended that the case for the settlement upon the payment of Rs 3.92 crore by the applicants. The applicants had informed the market watchdog about the remittance of the settlement amount in December and Sebi has confirmed the credit of the same.
Overnight, U.S. stocks extended Friday’s bruising sell-off as investors rushed to protect themselves against the prospect of a weakening economy.
Oil prices ticked lower on Tuesday on demand worries as coronavirus lockdowns in China, the top oil importer, continued. Brent crude slipped 0.5% to $105.4 a barrel after falling 5.7% on Monday.
If the current trend continues for a longer period of time, not only oil mills but oilseeds growers will also not be able to get good rates of their produce, says Samir Shah, president of Gujarat State Edible Oils and Oil Seeds Association (GEOA). Shah who is also past president of SOMA says that due to various international factors rates of edible oils had gone up considerably, especially imported oils earlier this year.
“With a view to curb rising prices of edible oil, the Government of India reduced import duty on edible oils. Considering the fact that India is producing hardly 30 percent of its edible oil requirement, the decision was right at that point of time. Now when international prices of edible oils have gone down by 15 percent to 25 percent and high production period has started in edible oil exporting countries, the government should gradually increase import duty to protect local oil mills and oilseeds growers,” said Shah. GEOA has also made representation before Union Minister for Commerce & Consumer Affairs, Piyush Goyal to increase import duty.
In June import duty on edible oils was ranging from 35 to 55 percent, since then the government gradually reduced import duty and at present it is ranging from zero percent to 15 percent on different edible oils, he said.
Just a month back prices of edible oils were through the roof and the government took appropriate measures by reducing import duty in order to protect consumers, says Atul Chaturvedi, president of Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA). “Prices of edible oils are coming down globally. Kharif sowing has already started across the country. In the interest of local farmers, it is high time to enhance import duty in a phased manner to encourage local edible oil value chain,” opined Chaturvedi.
On Thursday imported Palm oil prices were at around Rs 2100 per 15 kg as against local Rs 2700 and Rs 2550 of groundnut and cottonseed oils. Prices of other local oils including ricebran, coconut, soyabean and mustard remained as high as Rs 2350, Rs 2520, Rs 2500 and Rs 2580 respectively.
India imports around 13-13.5 million tonnes of edible oils, of which around 8-8.5 million tonnes (around 63 per cent) are palm oil. Though the price of other imported Sunflower oil remained at around Rs 2700 per 15 kg, but import quantity of the oil is much lower than that of palm oil.