Section 14E: Granting of licences to issuer of commercial papers

14E. Granting of licences to issuer of commercial papers (1) No person shall issue commercial papers unless the person is an eligible company which holds an issuer of commercial paper licence issued by the central bank. (2) An eligible company which intends to issue commercial papers shall apply to the central bank for an issuer of commercial paper licence. 156 Acts 2017 (3) An application under subsection (2) shall be made in such form and manner as the central bank may determine and shall be accompanied by – (a) such information or document as may be required by the central bank for the purpose of determining the application; and (b) payment of such non-refundable processing fee as may be prescribed by regulations made by the central bank, with the approval of the Minister. (4) The central bank may request the applicant to furnish such additional information or document as it may determine to process the application. (5) The central bank shall, within 30 days of the date of receipt of an application, or the supply of any additional information or document requested under subsection (4), determine whether to grant or refuse the application and inform the applicant within 7 days of its decision. (6) Where the central bank determines to grant a licence under this section, it shall, on payment of such licence fee as may be prescribed by regulations made by the central bank, with the approval of the Minister, issue the licence on such terms and conditions as it may determine. (7) An eligible company which has been licensed to issue commercial papers under this section shall comply with such prudential requirements as the central bank may, by guidelines, instructions or directives, determine. (8) In this section – “commercial paper” means an unsecured money market instrument in the form of a promissory Acts 2017 157 note having a maturity of not more than one year, issued by an eligible company; “eligible company” means – (a) a company incorporated or registered under the Companies Act; (b) having, at a point in time, not earlier than 12 months prior to the proposed issue of the commercial papers, net assets of a total value exceeding 300 million rupees, as certified by its auditors and reflected in its audited financial statements; and (c) having a credit rating acceptable to the central bank. (b) in section 20(1), by deleting the figure “200” and replacing it by the figure “400”; (c) in section 64 – (i) in subsection (3)(l), by inserting, after the words “Part VIII”, the words “or Part IX”; (ii) in subsection (16) – (A) by deleting the words “section 45(4) of the Dangerous Drugs Act” and replacing them by the words “section 11(5)(a) of the Commissions of Inquiry Act”; (B) by inserting, after the figure “123”, the words “, 123D”; (d) by adding the following new section –