New Delhi: India’s biggest oil firms including Indian Oil, BPCL and gas utility GAIL have been slapped with fines for a record fifth straight quarter for failing to meet listing norms of having the requisite number of independent and women directors on their board.
Stock exchanges BSE and NSE have slapped fines on oil refining and fuel marketing giants Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), explorer Oil India Ltd (OIL), gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd, and refiner Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) for not meeting the listing requirement in the April-June quarter.
In separate stock exchange filings, the companies detailed the fines imposed by the BSE and NSE for either not having the requisite number of independent directors or the mandated women directors in the quarter ended June 30, 2024 (first quarter of current 2024-25 fiscal year), but were quick to point out that appointment of directors was done by the government and they had no role in it.
The companies had faced fines for the same reason the previous four quarters as well.
Listing norms require companies to have independent directors in the same proportion as executive or functional directors. They are also required to have at least one woman director on the board.
IOC said, BSE and the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd imposed a fine of Rs 5,36,900 each on the company for non-compliance of Regulation 17(1) of the SEBIÂ (LODR) relating to composition of the Board of Directors during the quarter ended June 30, 2024.
BPCL said it has been imposed with a fine of Rs 2,41,900 each by BSE and NSEÂ for having one independent director short.
Stating that it has no control over the appointment of directors, the firm said it will be approaching BSE Ltd and NSE for waiver of the fines.
HPCL said it has been fined Rs 5,36,900 each by BSE and NSE. GAIL too faced similar fines.
“This is to submit that the non-compliance with regard to the composition of the board was neither due to any negligence/default by the company nor within the control of GAIL’s management and continuous efforts were also made to meet the compliance requirements,” it added.
OIL and MRPL too were slapped with Rs 5,36,900 fines each by BSE and NSE.
The oil giants have not been in compliance with the listing norms since April last year and have been slapped with fines every quarter since then.
IOC, HPCL, BPCL, GAIL, OIL and MRPL were slapped with a fine of Rs 5,36,900 each by NSEÂ and BSE for the January-March quarter.
The companies were slapped a fine of Rs 5,42,800 each for the third quarter (October-December 2023). They had faced a similar fine for the second quarter (July-September 2023).
