NEW DELHI, July 25: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has agreed in principle to allow corporate members of the Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE) to contest in elections to the board of directors.

DSE sources said that the Board has also approved in-principle the exemption of turnover fee on conversion of individual membership to a corporate membership in a stock exchange provided the individual member has paid the fee for the stipulated period of five years.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India board of directors is likely to formally approve the proposal of exempting turnover fee for corporatisation of a membership during its next board meeting in mid-August.

In case an individual broker has paid turnover fee for less than five years and got his membership converted into corporate membership, he will be required to pay turnover fee for the remaining period of the stipulated five years.

Delhi Stock Exchange president Deepak Chowdhry told The Indian Express that DSE had, earlier last year, made a representation to SEBI to allow corporate members to contest the elections.

These changes will call for amendments to the articles of the exchange.

"Securities and Exchange Board of India has given specific approval and the articles of the exchange would be changed at the next annual general meeting (AGM)", said Chowdhry.

Since a large number of Delhi Stock Exchange members have either already gone for converting their individual memberships into corporate or are in the process of doing so, it was felt that corporate members should also be allowed to contest in elections to the board of directors.

Chowdhry said the board of directors of DSE are meeting on August 1. Trade guarantee fund, changes in arbitration bye-laws and wholesale debt market are expected to be on the agenda.

The Exchange has also signed an agreement with Reuters to allow DSE quotations to be available on-line.

So far, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) rates are available online on Reuters. "The DSE rates will be made available to the subscribers in about three weeks", said Chowdhry.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.