New Delhi, Feb 1 (TIWN) In a relief to a number of top companies especially family owned businesses, the board of SEBI Board has decided to make the splitting of Chairman and MD position as a voluntary move and will not be a mandatory stipulation.

A SEBI board meeting held on Tuesday decided that considering rather unsatisfactory level of compliance achieved so far, with respect to this corporate governance reform, various representations received, constraints posed by the prevailing pandemic situation and with a view to enabling the companies to plan for a smoother transition, as a way forward, SEBI Board at this juncture, decided that this provision may not be retained as a mandatory requirement and instead be made applicable to the listed entities on a "voluntary basis".  As the revised deadline is less than two months away, on a review of the compliance status it is seen that the compliance level, which stood at 50.4 per cent amongst the top 500 Listed Companies as on September 2019, has progressed to only 54 per cent as on December 31, 2021.  Thus there has been barely a 4 per cent incremental improvement in compliance by the top 500 listed companies over the last two years, hence, expecting the remaining about 46 per cent of the top 500 listed companies to comply with these norms by the target date would be a tall order, SEBI board said.  Meanwhile, SEBI continues to receive representations from industry bodies and corporates expressing various compelling reasons, difficulties and challenges for not being able to comply with this regulatory mandate.