The Securities and Exchange Board of India is ready to relax some of the public issue norms to facilitate divestment of government stake in public sector undertakings, including the proposed offering for Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Gas Authority of India.

"The regulator will do whatever is necessary to facilitate the process of divestment," Sebi chairman, G N Bajpai said when asked about the market regulator's response to request from the Union divestment ministry to relax certain norms like announcement of price band.

The regulator would relax norms, if necessary, for divestment of listed public sector undertakings, Bajpai said when specifically asked about the proposed public float for ONGC and Gail.

Sebi would look at changes (of norms), as divestment would provide depth to Indian capital markets, he told reporters on the sidelines of a function organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Bajpai said any changes made in guidelines would be applicable for sale of government's residual holding in recently privatised companies as well as future divestments happening through public issue.

Centre has sought a host of exemptions to make the issues slated for this fiscal a grand success. These include declaration of price band a day before the bids were opened.

Furthermore, an elastic price band for the two issues have been proposed going beyond the stipulations of Sebi norms.

The state-owned ONGC has asked the capital markets watchdog for permission to set aside a certain portion of its equity on offer for the benefit of shareholders of its group companies, excluding government and PSU units.

The move comes as the current guidelines for reserving shares during public offers do not envisage quotas for this particular category.

Gail and ONGC had targeted hitting the market in second half of February 23 and first week of March for the public offers.