The Securities and Exchange Board of India has made it mandatory for listed firms to disclose the reason for delay, if any, in announcing the financial results within the stipulated time period.
For quarterly numbers, companies get 45 days from the end of the quarter while in the case of annual results, sixty days from the end of the financial year are given to the company to submit their results.
While current regulations require companies to disclose the delay, if any, in announcing the results, there is no regulatory compulsion to disclose the reasons.
“Nevertheless, wherever there were delays in submission of financial results by certain listed entities to the stock exchanges in the past, while the fact of delay was intimated by the listed entity, the reasons for the same were not disclosed/were not brought out clearly. In such cases, the investors were often left unaware as to the reasons for such delays which may have had an impact on their investment decision. Hence, a need for disclosure by listed entities of reasons for delay in submission of financial results arises,” a SEBI circular said. The new norms require firms to disclose the reasons for the delay within one day of the due date for the submission of results.
Further, if the decision to delay the results was taken by the listed entity prior to the due date, the listed entity shall disclose detailed reasons for such delay to the stock exchanges within one working day of such decision, added the circular.