New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) Listed companies have to disclose board decisions within 30 minutes, while all other material information would need to be made public within 24 hours, Sebi said on Sunday warning of strong penal action for non-compliance.

The Sebi board at its meeting here approved changes in its proposed Sebi (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations.

Announcing a tightening its corporate disclosure norms, Sebi chairman U.K. Sinha told reporters that the regulator is strictly monitoring the compliance of disclosure or listing guidelines, which are now being converted into regulations for better compliance.

The information, including about material events, would need to be mandatorily disclosed through stock exchange platforms for the benefit of investors, while the companies would have to provide “specific and adequate reply” to queries with ”respect to rumours and media reports”.

These disclosures would need to be made as soon as “reasonably practicable”, but not later than the given time limit, Sebi said.

The companies would also need to disclose all such information on their websites and this would need to be kept there for a minimum period of five years.

The new disclosure requirements are aimed at checking a widespread practice among Indian companies of selectively leaking the information, including through media and without informing the investors first, for personal gains by promoters and management by way of inflating the valuations in the stock market and before merger and acquisition deals.