SEBI New Rules: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is going to simplify the process of applying for public issue of debt securities. For this, SEBI is going to implement new rules from November 1. Under this, individual investors applying through intermediaries for an amount up to Rs 5 lakh will have to use Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for fund blocking.

SEBI's move is aimed at making the process more efficient and in line with the existing process for public issues of equity shares and convertibles.

 UPI will be mandatory
The new rules will be mandatory for investors who apply for public issues of debt securities through intermediaries such as stock brokers, syndicate members, registrars or depository participants. Investors will also have to provide the UPI ID linked to their bank account in the bid-cum-application form to be submitted to the intermediaries. Easy access to funds SEBI has also introduced new rules aimed at reducing the time taken by issuers to raise funds. Under the revised rules, SEBI has reduced the minimum subscription period for public issues of debt securities from three to two working days. Also, in case of price band or yielding revision, the bidding period can now be extended by only one working day instead of three. Meanwhile, for issuers whose securities are already listed, the time for public comments on draft offer documents has been reduced to one day. Apart from this, this period has been reduced to five days for other issuers. What will be its impact? Makrand M Joshi, founder of corporate compliance firm MMJC & Associates, said, "Making UPI mandatory for bids up to Rs 5 lakh will make the process easier, due to which more retail investors can turn to the debt segment." Joshi said that this has happened at a time when, according to Finance Ministry data, UPI transactions have increased to Rs 1,669 lakh crore. SEBI is actively working to make the debt market more attractive.