All bonus issues or shares announced on or after 1 October will now be made available for trading two days after the record date. Till now, shares of such issues are available only after about two weeks from the record date. The record date is the cutoff date on which the issuer company considers to decide which shareholders are eligible for the bonus issue. The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) said in a circular issued on September 16 that T+2 trading of bonus shares has been enabled, where T means record date. The circular details the procedure for this and states that any delay in compliance with the timelines mentioned in the process will attract penalty under point 4.1 of SEBI circular SEBI/HO/CFD/DIL2/CIR/P/2019/94 dated August 19, 2019 on ‘Non-compliance with certain provisions of SEBI ICDR Regulations’. The procedure is as follows –
