The Hon'ble Finance Minister while presenting Union Budget 2012-13 said that "Simplifying the process of issuing Initial Public Offers (IPOs), lowering their costs and helping companies reach more retail investors in small towns. To achieve this, in addition to the existing IPO process, I propose to make it mandatory for companies to issue IPOs of Rs.10 crore and above in electronic form through nationwide broker network of stock exchanges"

"Pursuant to the above, in consultation with various market participants, SEBI has decided to introduce an additional mechanism for investors to submit application forms in public issues using the stock broker ("broker") network of Stock Exchanges, who may not be syndicate members in an issue" sebi said in the release.

This mechanism can be used to submit ASBA(Application Supported by Blocked Amount) as well as non-ASBA applications by investors. Application form for investors will be available on Stock Exchanges for download on their websites/broker terminals, so that any investor or stock broker can download/print the forms directly.

Stock Exchanges shall ensure that the information relating to price band is pre-filled in such downloadable application forms

The facility to submit the application forms will be available in more than 1000 locations which are part of the nationwide broker network of the Stock Exchanges and where there is a presence of the brokers' terminals.

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