Tax may check equity funds redemption
The hike in short-term capital gains tax for equities to 15 per cent from 10 per cent proposed in the budget is likely to discourage redemptions from stock mutual funds, an industry expert said on Friday, reports Reuters from Mumbai.

“It’s a bad news for capital markets but will encourage long-term investment in mutual funds,” Suraj Saraf, senior analyst at fund tracker ICRA, said. Investors in equity funds pay a short-term capital gains tax of 10 per cent before a year and no long-term capital gains tax.

Equity funds saw a redemption of Rs 82,380 crore and inflow worth about Rs 1.2 trillion in 12 months ending January 2008, data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India showed.

Sebi puts brakes on speed-reading of NFO
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday issued a circular putting an end to new fund offering (NFO) advertisements of mutual funds in television channels resorting to reading out market risks disclaimer at a breakneck speed so that a viewer almost misses it, reports DHNS from Mumbai.

   A new circular by Sebi, to be effective from April 1, 2008, has made a mandate that henceforth, the time for display and voice over of the standard warning be enhanced to five seconds in audio visual advertisements.
In case of audio advertisements, Sebi circular is clear that the standard warning shall be read in an easily understandable manner over a period of five seconds. As per the Sebi rules, this disclaimer is a must for every MF product advertisement.