The Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Tuesday relaxed the entry norms for market entities for debt membership, in a bid to provide much-needed boost to the country's debt market.

For entities that are already registered for other segments, the capital market regulator also announced its decision to waive off the deposit and annual fee.

It means that stock brokers or clearing members who are already memberships with clearing corporation will not have to make any payment in the name of deposit and annual fee to obtain a membership of debt segment.

The deposit requirement for entities who are not stock brokers or clearing members would be Rs 10 lakh. In addition to the deposit requirement, such entities will also have to pay an annual fee of Rs 50,000 till their registration. The market regulator said that these requirements might be reviewed after five years.

Sebi underlined that there was need to help the debt segment to bring it at par with the exchange's other segments.

The market regulator said in a statement that "the debt segment is in nascent stage of evolution and needs further impetus to bring it at par with the other segments of the exchange."

Sebi also approved new buyback norms, under which 50 per cent of the amount assigned for the buyback must be used by the company for the buyback purpose and 25 per cent of that amount must be kept in an escrow account. The time frame for buyback was reduced from 12 months to 6 months.