‘Why is Centre sitting over anti-Ponzi scheme bill?’
29 Oct 2014 5:18 AM IST
The West Bengal government, in April 2013, had passed a bill in the assembly called ‘West Bengal Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishment Bill 2013’. The first bill was duly sent for Presidential assent by the governor.
The government of India’s observation was received after some delay and the state government accepted the views of the central government.
Accordingly, the state government requested the Centre to obtain the assent of the President of India with the undertaking that the necessary changes will be affected in the bill. But the centre is still sitting over it and has not given a ‘go ahead’ to take effective action against the chit fund operators.
West Bengal finance minister, Dr Amit Mitra, had sent three reminder letters to the home minister of the new government, Rajnath Singh, but no actions have been taken yet. According to home ministry sources in the recent letter to the Home Ministry, Dr Mitra in a strongly-worded letter said the existing laws do not empower and equip the state government to effectively stop the menace of Ponzi scheme operators who are spreading and defrauding poor defaulters. The chairman of SEBI has already suggested that the states are required to enact ‘Depositors Protection Laws’ and strengthen the enforcement mechanism, but without the assent of the President to this bill the suggestions cannot be implemented.
Mitra in his letter said, ‘I fail to understand that while on one hand the Centre is urging states to enact laws which may effectively deal with such ponzi schemes, on the other hand it appears that there is no visible urgency on the part of the central government to clear such an important bill which is now long pending with the centre.’
He also said, ‘The second bill which was sent to the Government of India, after incorporating all the suggestions and comments of different ministries of the government of India, is lying pending for the last six months. We have been constantly urging the government of India to obtain the Presidential assent so that the enforcement mechanism is put in place urgently to deal with this severe problem, but still, there appears to be no fruitful result.’
This new bill will empower the state government to seize assets of chit fund companies and sell them and return the money to poor investors.
The government of India’s observation was received after some delay and the state government accepted the views of the central government.
Accordingly, the state government requested the Centre to obtain the assent of the President of India with the undertaking that the necessary changes will be affected in the bill. But the centre is still sitting over it and has not given a ‘go ahead’ to take effective action against the chit fund operators.
West Bengal finance minister, Dr Amit Mitra, had sent three reminder letters to the home minister of the new government, Rajnath Singh, but no actions have been taken yet. According to home ministry sources in the recent letter to the Home Ministry, Dr Mitra in a strongly-worded letter said the existing laws do not empower and equip the state government to effectively stop the menace of Ponzi scheme operators who are spreading and defrauding poor defaulters. The chairman of SEBI has already suggested that the states are required to enact ‘Depositors Protection Laws’ and strengthen the enforcement mechanism, but without the assent of the President to this bill the suggestions cannot be implemented.
Mitra in his letter said, ‘I fail to understand that while on one hand the Centre is urging states to enact laws which may effectively deal with such ponzi schemes, on the other hand it appears that there is no visible urgency on the part of the central government to clear such an important bill which is now long pending with the centre.’
He also said, ‘The second bill which was sent to the Government of India, after incorporating all the suggestions and comments of different ministries of the government of India, is lying pending for the last six months. We have been constantly urging the government of India to obtain the Presidential assent so that the enforcement mechanism is put in place urgently to deal with this severe problem, but still, there appears to be no fruitful result.’
This new bill will empower the state government to seize assets of chit fund companies and sell them and return the money to poor investors.
Next Story
