Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, In order to tighten the noose around the unscrupulous Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFC) which are operational in the State and collecting money from the public under various lucrative schemes with the fraudulent intentions, the Punjab Government has intensified its action. In this direction the meeting of the High Powered State level coordination Committee on NBFC constituted under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Punjab was held today.
Disclosing this here today, an official spokesperson of the state government said that at the onset of the meeting the Chief Secretary expressed serious concerns over the mushrooming of NBFCs under the garb of providing financial benefits to the public. He said that the financial incidents under chit fund operations occurred in the eastern part of the country are eye openers for the financial regulators & the Government. It was discussed that to check these economic offences, public needed to be sensitized and at the same time State needs to keep a close watch at the working of such NBFCs.
The Chief Secretary was apprised by RBI officials present in the meeting that 2 types of NBFCs are being registered under the Act formulated by the apex banking institution, Category A which are authorized for accepting deposits from public and Category B which are not authorized for accepting public deposits. Currently 60 Category A and 260 Category B NBFCs from Punjab have been registered with RBI. It was disclosed that RBI is minutely supervising the activities of the registered NBFCs and is cancelling the Registration Certificates of NBFCs where it finds that financial irregularities are committed. As per RBI data, since 2006 Certificate of Registrations of 19 Category A and 29 Category B NBFCs of the region have been cancelled by RBI Chandigarh office for non-compliance of various RBI guidelines. All such cancellations of Registrations by RBI shall be available in public domain on state government websites for convenience of general public. Further SEBI has also provided a list of 9 companies to the State Government, which are not being operated in accordance with the SEBI guidelines. The Chief Secretary assured to initiate appropriate action against these erring companies.
Chief Secretary informed that the Punjab Cabinet has already approved the Punjab Protection of Interest of Depositors’ Bill 2014 and before it is passed by the State Legislature, the draft of the Bill has been forwarded to the RBI and SEBI for comments. The Chief Secretary asked RBI & SEBI to provide the comments on this draft in next one month to enable the State Government to pass the draft Bill in the State Legislature. He said that the State has already notified Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) of all the districts as Joint Director, Institutional Finance and Banking. All the ADCs have been directed to collect information on various Non-Banking Financial entities working in their jurisdiction. He said that the information thus collected would be supplied to RBI and SEBI for initiating action against fraudulent entities. While discussing, the case of defaulting NBFC in Punjab, the Chief Secretary asked RBI & SEBI to serve notices to such companies before the next SLCC meeting. It was also assured by the Chief Secretary that the State Government functionaries would coordinate with RBI & SEBI and follow their guidelines in true spirit.
For proper coordination between RBI, SEBI and the State Government on this issue, the Chief Secretary Punjab constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary Home. Director, Directorate of Institutional Finance and Director, Bureau of Investigation would be the other members in this Committee. This Committee would examine all the concerns put forward by the RBI & SEBI and redress the issues within stipulated time period. Further to build capacity of the Police officials to handle such cases of fraudulent activities by NBFCs, the Chief Secretary asked RBI to conduct a one day workshop for senior police officers and 5 day workshop for field level officials.
Prominent amongst others who were present in the meeting included Mr. Jagpal Singh Sandhu, Principal Secretary Home, Mrs Vini Mahajan, Principal Secretary, Finance, Mr. Jaspal Singh, Secretary Expenditure, Mr. V. K. Bhawra,Director, Bureau of Investigation, Ms. Rashmi Fauzdar Regional Director, RBI (Punjab and UT Chd), Ms. Kiran Sharma GM, RBI, Chandigarh, Mr. Mohammad Atif Alvi, DGM SEBI and other senior officials from RBI,SEBI and the State Government.
