FM Jaitley meets Sebi board, reviews state of capital markets

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday reviewed the state of the economy and the capital market and discussed capacity building and other infrastructure needs for merger of commodities regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in his first post-Budget meeting with the board of the capital markets watchdog.

After addressing Sebi's board members, Jaitley said he also discussed various issues confronting the regulator, its functioning vis-a-vis new proposals in the Budget and the roadmap ahead.

"The convention is that I meet the Sebi board this time of the year. This is also the time to review the state of economy and the state of capital markets, issues which are confronting Sebi, their functioning vis-a-vis new proposals in the Budget and how we see the roadmap in coming months," Jaitley said.

When asked about the merger of FMC with Sebi, proposed by the minister in the Budget, Jaitley said this was also an issue of discussion.

"They (Sebi) talked about capacity building at Sebi, both in terms of ability to acquaint with the subjects and other infrastructure requirements," the Finance Minister said after his customary post-Budget address to the Sebi board.

Those present included Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, Sebi Chairman UK Sinha and members of Sebi board.

On the proposal to set up the country's first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Gujarat's GIFT City, Jaitley said the regulators are making a proposal in this regard.

Sebi, along with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is likely to soon announce final guidelines for the IFSC regime.