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The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has adequate internal mechanisms to address issues related to conflict of interest, including a disclosure framework and provisions for recusal, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said on Monday.
The minister was responding to a Lok Sabha question on allegations against SEBI Chairman Madhabi Puri Buch regarding conflict of interest and actions taken by the government.
“The Board of SEBI has adopted a Code on Conflicts of Interest for members of its Board, including the Chairman, to ensure that the Board conducts itself in a manner that does not compromise its ability to discharge its mandate or undermine public confidence in the ability of members to discharge their responsibilities,” Chaudhary further said.
The Public Accounts Committee considered SEBI Chairman’s request for exemption from personal appearance due to sudden and unavoidable personal exigency and adjourned the meeting, the Finance Ministry also clarified.
The SEBI chairperson has been in the eye of a storm over allegations of conflict of interest over her and her husband’s investments in offshore funds linked to the Adani Group. SEBI, Buch and the Adani Group have refuted these allegations.
LIC Unclaimed Funds:
Meanwhile, in response to another question, the Finance Ministry said that the total outstanding and unclaimed maturity claims with Life Insurance Corporation of India have almost doubled in the last five years to Rs 880.93 crore in the year FY24 from Rs 480.78 crore in FY20.
Chaudhary was responding to a Lok Sabha question on unclaimed funds held by LIC.
The total number of such claims has also steadily increased to 3,72,282 in FY24 from 2,43,790 in FY20, according to data provided by him.
However, the total number of unclaimed death claims with LIC has decreased in the last five years. In FY24, LIC had 10 unclaimed death claims worth Rs 14 lakh, as against 89 such claims worth Rs 2.02 crore in FY20.
Over the years, LIC has taken a number of measures to reduce the pending and unclaimed claims against it.
