Lok Sabha takes up bill to deal with ponzi schemes

The Lok Sabha on Wednesday took up the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2019, for discussion with Union minister Anurag Thakur pitching for its passage, saying the proposed law is comprehensive and will protect small depositors' interest by giving primacy.

Leader of the Congress in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury supported the need for this bill to save gullible investors from ponzi schemes.

He, however, questioned the government for bringing an ordinance to this effect, saying its tendency to bring law through an executive order is "deleterious to the ethos and fabric of democracy".

Thakur, the minister of state for finance, said the bill was passed by the previous Lok Sabha in February this year but could not be taken up in Rajya Sabha due to paucity of time, causing it to lapse.

That is why the Union government promulgated an ordinance, he said.

"It's a comprehensive bill that gives first right to depositors. It also gives states powers to frame rules," he told the House, adding that it has incorporated suggestions of parliamentary panels.

Speaking on the bill, Chowdhury said he supports the intent behind the bill.

Crores of people have been duped by ponzi schemes, he said, and took a veiled dig at the TMC government in West Bengal saying the state has the highest number of such schemes.

The CBI probed their cheating but no serious punishment has been meted out to serve as a deterrent, he said.

The government should tell about the money invested in these schemes and plug loopholes in the bill, he said.

The bill, Chowdhury said, has provisions that can be exploited by enforcement agencies and also smack of violation of rights to privacy.

BJP's Shivkumar Udasi asked the government to ban crypto currencies.

The bill was introduced in the House last week.

The government said it will help tackle the menace of illicit deposit taking activities, which at present are exploiting regulatory gaps and lack of strict administrative measures to dupe poor and gullible people of their hard earned money.

It seeks to provide for a comprehensive mechanism to ban the unregulated deposit schemes, other than covering deposits taken in the ordinary course of business, and to protect the interest of depositors.

Kalyan Banerjee(TMC) said the government should ban such unregulated schemes.

Banerjee said that people are running such funds because everyday the government is reducing interest rates.

"A common man, pensioner, poor man depend on small saving schemes", he said adding it is the government which has pushed common people to take money from such funds.

S Senthil Kumar (DMK) said people are forced to deposit money in such funds because the banks are taking money from people by charging on every transaction.

Sunil Kumar Pintu(JD-U) said that the government should ban such funds.

Bhartruhari Mahtab(BJD) said it is not only poor people who have invested in these funds but also people having black money.

Kunwar Danish Ali (BSP) expressed hope that the government will implement the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2019 sincerely.