The Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has allowed the mutual funds and portfolio management services (PMS) to trade in commodity derivatives.

In a release, the regulatory body stated that "The Board approved participation by mutual funds and portfolio managers in exchange-traded commodity derivatives. Category - III Alternative Investment Funds which are already permitted to participate in Commodity derivatives have now been permitted to deal with goods received in delivery against the physical settlement of such contracts if any,".

Apart from this, it has also approved amendments to the regulations of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) and Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvITs).

In its board meet which was held on Friday, the regulatory body has raised leverage limit InvITs from its previous cap of 49 per cent to 70 per cent of assets. It has also exempted open offer for acquisition or scheme of arrangement as ordered by a court or a tribunal.

The fees format of some of the market participants are also revised and currently, the fee for brokers has been trimmed down to Rs 10 per Rs 1 crore transaction from the earlier fees of Rs 15 per Rs 1 crore transaction.

In its statement, it noted that "The fees payable by brokers for agri-commodity derivatives transactions has been reduced by 93.33 per cent, i.e. from Rs 15 per crore of transactions to Rs 1 per crore of transactions,".

For the purpose of easing out for the custodians to do the business, the SEBI has approved the proposal to amend the SEBI (Custodian) Regulations, 1996 and has agreed to grant permanent registration to the custodians instead of a periodical renewal once in every three years.