SEBI will have to work harder to ensure that the BSE depository gets easy access to dematerialised stock and clients of the National Share Depository's (NSDL's) clients. It has ordered a stay on NSDL's move to levy a 10 bases points transaction charge on inter-depository transfers. However, the law seems to have stumped SEBI's efforts. Inter-depository transfers attract a hefty stamp duty of 50 points. The problem is simply clumsy drafting. The amendment to the Indian Stamps Act to eliminate stamp duty on depository transactions did not provide for the existence of more than one depository. Hence the 1977 ordinance only provides that transfer of beneficial ownership in shares, dealt with by a depository, will not attract stamp duty. It says nothing about inter depository transfers. What is needed is a simple amendment. The BSE depository wants the law to be interpreted in spirit and not in word; others disagree. ``The law,'' they say, ``can be amended but not flouted''.Will this put a temporary spoke in SEBI's efforts?

All is not well with credit cards

Something is amiss in the credit card business. Predictably, nationalised banks have together run up potential credit defaults of Rs 163 crore, mainly because recovery is a dirty business which government organisations can rarely handle. But that has not stopped new entrants -- such as Dena bank -- from launching their cards, or foreign banks from peddling their cards with aggressiveness. However, they have all turned coy when it comes to enrolling merchant establishments. Earlier, credit card issuers spent more time enrolling merchant establishments than selling cards. Nobody is saying why. We thought that recovery was the dirtiest aspects of plastics, so is there a problem with merchant establishments as well? And is it not unfair to hawk cards to people if they are not going to create enough outlets for their use?

Personal inquisition

So far, complaints about credit card companies were about theirMafia-style tactics to recover dues. But what do you say when people have serious problems with the admission procedures? Well-known investment analyst R. Balakrishnan complains of an offensive interrogation by the agency which is peddling Amex's credit card. He is so furious at the crude inquisition of his wife that he has dashed off an angry complaint to the bank, the Consumer Guidance Society of India, and leading newspapers. Others too have similar complaints. What explanation credit card companies will trot out for such intimidation?

Versace poor

Stockbroker Shanker Sharma once told us that he never fails to check the society pages as a part of his investment decisions. It is on those pages that corporate honchos make revelations about their expensive tastes in yachts, horses, cars etc. Usually, their share price moves in inverse proportion to the publicity. After all, nobody has any doubt that the bills are paid by the companies that they pretend to manage. But even investors are taken abackat the Versace pretensions of an industrialist who controls a sick former blue chip. While the firm remains terminally ill, the promoters flaunt their wealth on the society pages, and use their political muscle to keep control over management.

World Cup blues

The loss to Australia has spoilt the summer galas of our big corporate honchos. With the Indian team almost out of the World Cup, the cricket diplomacy launched by global investment banks through a series of lavish parties and match tickets has lost its sizzle. Apart from the investment banks, at least a score of companies have scheduled board meetings in London during the World Cup. For the latter, there may be no need to cancel the meetings; a foreign trip is still an attraction. But global investment bankers who travel abroad more often than they go to city suburbs may be canceling a few tickets.

Author's e-mail: suchetadalal@yahoo.com