SEBI has extended the deadline for seeking public comments on the second Alternative Investment Policy Advisory Committee (AIPAC) report till January 2017. The original deadline had ended yesterday.
Based on the representations received from various bodies/associations/ etc., seeking extension of the timeline to furnish the comments/suggestions, it has been decided to grant the time till January 16, 2017 for submitting the comments on the report, states the SEBI circular.
Earlier in March 2015, SEBI had constituted a committee headed by N. R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, to suggest measures to boost the startup ecosystem in India and develop the AIF industry.
The 24-member committee has made the following recommendations to SEBI:
- Form a governance committee for funds which raise capital from retail investors with ticket size of less than Rs. 10 crores.
- Create a centralized body to report the performance metrics of funds on an aggregate basis.
- Treat gains from transfer of unlisted shares held by AIFs as capital gains, irrespective of transfer of control and management. This will ensure certainty of taxation and remove the ambiguity surrounding taxation of these gains as business income.
- Extend pass-through taxation to Category III AIFs.
- Introduce a Securities Transaction Tax (STT) regime for AIF taxation which will ensure certainty and ease of doing business and help raise substantial revenues.
- Allow Category III AIFs to participate in IPOs as anchor investors.
- Set out the process for the transfer of units in the placement memorandum to enable investors to transfer their units before the end of the fund life.
- Allow Category III AIFs to invest in global securities subject to aggregate caps similar to venture capital fund (VCFs).
- Bring down the requirement for angel investors to remain invested in a company from the current 3 years to 1 year.
- Bring down the clause mandating angel funds to invest a minimum Rs. 50 lakhs in a company to Rs 25 lakhs.
- Allow angel funds to have a minimum of 200 investors from the current 49.
As on September 2016, there are over 250 AIFs which manage assets of Rs. 25,000 crore.
