The Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) is mulling to enforce a separate regulation to take action against listed companies that fail to report to the regulatory body on time. Currently, many firms that have been disregarding Sebon’s directive have been getting away with it.

As per Sebon’s regulation, listed companies are required to submit their unaudited quarterly financial reports to it within one month of the completion of the quarter. Likewise, organisations that have received operating licences from Sebon, including stockbrokers and merchant bankers, also need to submit their financial reports within the deadline.

Likewise, listed companies have to submit their annual audited reports within five months from the start of the fiscal year. The deadline for Sebon’s licensed organisations is three months from the end of the previous fiscal year.

However, many companies have not been submitting their reports on time. According to Sebon, 98 out of the 226 listed companies have not submitted their financial reports till date while the deadline passed on August 16.

Most of the errant companies are development banks. Sebon records show that 40 out of the 77 development banks have not submitted their financial reports.

Similarly, 20 out of the 34 finance companies have not submitted their reports. Likewise, 15 companies related to manufacturing and processing, four companies in the trading group, seven commercial banks and six hydropower companies have failed to submit their reports.

However, Sebon has not taken any action against these companies. “There is no separate regulation to take action against such firms,” said Sebon’s assistant spokesperson Niranjaya Ghimire.  According to Ghimire, Sebon has just been sending caution notes to these companies. According to the Securities Act 2006, companies violating the rule can be fined or their transactions suspended.

Nepse suspends trading of shares of 6 companies

KATHMANDU: The Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) on Monday suspended trading of shares of six stock broking companies for failing to pay the regulation fee to the Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon). As per Sebon rules, stock broking companies are required to pay 0.6 percent of the total service charge they receive.  According to Sebon, it took action against Agrawal Securities, Ashutosh and Brokerage and Securities, Bhrikuti Stock, Creative Securities, Shree Krishna Securities and South Asian Bulls on the charge of not paying the regulation fee on time.