No of penalty defaulters rise by 20% to 1,627: Sebi

The number of entities having defaulted on payment of penalties and other fines imposed by Sebi has risen to 1,627 -- marking a sharp increase of nearly 20 per cent from the year-ago levels.
Collectively, these entities have defaulted on payments totalling well above Rs 100 crore and Sebi has initiated recovery action against many of them, while prosecution cases are pending against others in various courts.
As per the latest data released by Sebi today, the total number of 'defaulters in payment of penalty imposed by Sebi as on September 30, 2014' stood at 1,627, as against a total of 1,373 such entities as on September 30 last year.

The number of such entities stood at 1,494 as on March 31, 2014.
These penalties have been imposed by Sebi for various offences related to securities market, while some of these cases are over a decade old.
Some of the defaulters have not paid amounts as small as Rs 15,000, while the majority of individual penalties are worth a few lakhs of rupees and a few others amounting to a few crores of rupees.

Moreover, some of these dues are pending since 2000, while many of these cases are also pending in courts and at other forums.
Meanwhile, Sebi has also begun to exercise its powers of attaching bank accounts and other assets for recovery of the outstanding dues pending for up to 13 years.

It has so far issued more than 1,500 attachment notices for recovering about Rs 2,000 crore from defaulters. These proceedings involve attachment of bank accounts, moveable and non-moveable properties, shares and debentures, among others.
After clearance from Parliament earlier in August, the government notified the Securities Laws Amendments Act, which authorises Sebi to pass orders for attachment of properties, arrest and detaining of defaulters in prison and for disgorgement of ill-gotten money, among others.
Before the Act, the market watchdog was exercising this power through an ordinance, which was promulgated thrice.
In some cases, the attachment orders have been revoked after the concerned entities made the outstanding payments.

Sebi Chairman U K Sinha had said in August that attachment powers have helped it recover about Rs 20 crore till that time.