Mumbai, Sept. 26: The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has extended the deadline for the mandatory requirement of a PAN to operate a beneficiary owner account in the depository system.

The market regulator has extended the deadline to December 31 from September 30.

Sebi has, however, withdrawn the grace period of 30 days it had allowed to certain entities to open the beneficiary owner account without producing a PAN.

Sebi received various requests from market participants for an extension citing practical difficulties. Some brokers had also sought exemption from verifying the original PAN card of institutional clients as they are dealing through custodians and not directly with their clients.

Sebi has advised custodians to verify the PAN details of institutional clients with the original cards and provide a copy of such verified details to the brokers duly certified.

This would be applicable to institutional clients, namely, foreign institutional investors, mutual funds, venture capital funds and foreign venture capital investors. It will include scheduled commercial banks, multilateral and bilateral development financial institutions, state industrial development corporations and insurance companies registered with the IRDA and public financial institutions.

The depositories are required to issue a circular regarding the modification to the depository participants. They are also required to put the clarifications on their websites and release advertisement campaigns for investors.