Sahara says cleared Rs 33,000 crore OFCD

Asks Sebi to 'sit with us amicably and clear remaining payment'

Sahara India Parivar has said that it has already "cleared around Rs 33,000 crore liability" towards optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) issued by two group firms.

"We started OFCD in these two companies in 2008-09. Most of the money deposited with us was for 5 to 10 years. But now we have cleared around Rs 33,000 crore liability," the group said today.

"Sahara has tendered payment of a sum of Rs 5,120 crore to the Hon'ble Supreme court as the maximum OFCD outstanding liability," it added.

The statements were a part of a advertisement war of sorts launched by the group against the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). In huge newspaper advertisements spread across two full pages in national dailies, the pariwar alleged that Sebi has given “unnecessary public notices through national media” which have not “served any purpose/interest of the Hon’ble investors.”

Denying any conversion of OFCD money into other group schemes, Sahara termed such statements as “childish conclusion.”
“It is really a childish conclusion and allegation made on the basis of one thousand or two thousand complaints, as Sebi claims, out of three crore investors,” the pariwar said.

The group asked Sebi to take the truckloads of documents it has been sending and begin repaying investors. “We have been requesting Sebi repeatedly to accept documents – 60 truckload of documents are lying in our Mumbai godown awaiting Sebi’s acceptance. Unless Sebi has application forms to match the signature and payment vouchers to see who has already been paid, how can Sebi make even one repayment.?” the group challenged the regulator adding, “ if Sebi had any interest of payments to small investors they would have started taking documents. Right from the beginning everybody has understood that Sebi’s only objective is to act against and malign the image of Sahara. Why is Sebi doing this?”

Now, It is not clear if Sebi will accept this statement that Sahara has cleared the Rs 33,000 crore liability to the relevant customer accounts. In an order in June 2011, Sebi whole time member K M Abraham had presecribed a specific method of repayment to be followed for the refund of OFCDs. He also had asked Sahara to get peer-reviewed auditors certify this refund.