A top Securities and Exchange Board of India official on Friday criticised the Reserve Bank of India's "conflicting" roles as a regulator of the government securities market and as a market participant, suggesting that Sebi was better suited for the regulatory function.

"RBI is also a market participant in the government securities market. The regulation and decision on the interest rates should be, as far as possible, taken independently," M S Sahoo, chief general manager, Sebi said in Agra, addressing the 31st annual convention of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India.

He wondered how could RBI, the issuer and underwriter of G-secs and the maker of monetary policy of the country, regulate a market in which it was also a participant without "conflict of interests."

Asked what would be the ideal situation and who should be the regulator of the Gilts markets, Sahoo declined to say anything except that "Sebi is not at all a market player."

Sahoo's comments come at a time when the Sebi chairman G N Bajpai had pitched vigorously for allowing Sebi to regulate the India depository receipts, whose formulation has been prepared by the department of company affairs.

"Anything that is listed under the trading platform should be regulated by the market regulator," Bajpai had said during the inauguration ceremony.