The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has directed listed companies to electronically file annual and quarterly financial statements. The SECP has issued circular number 24 of 2017 here on Friday. According to the circular, pursuant to the provisions of section 223(7) of Companies Act, 2017 (the "Act"), a listed company shall, besides filing hard copies of its annual audited financial statements, auditor's report, director's report and chairman's review report, send electronically a copy of the annual financial statements together with the aforesaid reports to the Commission.
In terms of section 237(2) of the Act, every listed company shall electronically transmit its quarterly financial statements to the Commission. The Commission has designated email address financial.statements@secp.gov.pk for the electronic transmission of annual and quarterly financial statements. The companies are required to transmit the financial statements in PDF as well as MS Excel format to the designated email address.
The email address as reported by a company in its annual report ie Form A/ B shall be treated as official email address of the company. Emails only from official email addresses of companies shall be received by the system, the SECP said. The SECP said that receipt of the annual and quarterly financial statements in the prescribed electronic formats from official email address of a company at the Commission's designated email address, within stipulated time, shall be considered as compliance with the provisions of section 223(7) and 237(2) of the Act respectively, so far as those relate to electronic transmission of financial statements to the Commission.