The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) believes that the recent controversy related to the employees complaining about alleged toxic work culture at the regulatory body is "misguided" and perhaps triggered by "external elements".

"... it is our belief that SEBI’s junior officers, who were in large numbers, originally aggrieved in respect of HRA allowances, have been misguided, perhaps by external elements... To believe that as “employees of a Regulator”, they should not be held to high standards of performance and accountability even though, they have in fact demonstrated that they are fully capable of delivering to high standards to the market ecosystem," stated a press release issued by SEBI on September 4. It further added that the junior staffers were misguided to believe that "they are being “underpaid”, even at a CTC of Rs 34 lakh per annum and that it would be in their interest to use issues of work culture to bargain for monetary benefits" and that "they should get automatic promotions". "SEBI officers are already well paid, and for entry level officers at Grade A, the cost to company is approximately Rs 34 Lakhs per annum, which compares extremely favourably even with the corporate sector. The new demands placed by them would amount to an additional CTC of almost Rs 6 Lakhs per annum," added the SEBI release.