The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Monday, asked the State governments to be vigilant against unauthorised deposit mobilisation activities in different parts of the country.
Drawing attention to the rampant incidence of unauthorised deposit collections in the recent past, the RBI suggested that public awareness campaigns against deposit mobilisation in different forms by unauthorised entities and fraudulent offers of large sums of prize money by fictitious mails/SMS should be intensified besides strengthening the Economic Offence Wings (EOWs)/cyber cells and training of State officials, said the RBI in a press release after a meeting of the chief secretaries and finance secretaries of the State governments.
“This year’s conference was special in terms of participation of the chief secretaries of State governments in view of increasing focus on role of States in curbing the activities of unauthorised entities amassing deposits from gullible public,” said the RBI
Recently, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has asked the Delhi-based property developer, PACL, to return Rs.49,100 crore to depositors.
SEBI Chairman U. K. Sinha suggested that States should enact depositors’ investor protection act and strengthen the enforcement mechanism. He further sought co-operation of the State governments in curbing ‘dabba trading’.
RBI Deputy Governor Harun R. Khan focussed on channelising financial savings with the formal financial system like bank deposits, equity, fixed income securities and insurance products for efficient financial intermediation. He stressed that more concerted and coordinated measures would be needed by the State governments along with the national regulators to prevent flow of peoples’ savings into unauthorised, illegal and unviable schemes by dubious entities.
