Agartala: The Tripura cabinet on Tuesday approved the rules of Central government enacted “Banning on Unregulated Deposit Schemes act 2019” as ‘Tripura banning on unregulated deposit schemes” replacing the previous state law in force, Law and Parliamentary affairs minister Ratan Lal Nath said in cabinet briefing.
Nath said, “There was a state law named after Tripura Protection of interest of Depositors, under which penal sanctions were awarded to offenders accused of chit funds. By approving the rules of central act, the state government has cleared its stance on stringent view towards these unregulated non-banking financial companies.”
According to Nath, since the central government has framed a stricter law in 2019, there is no use of the law that was in force earlier. Justifying his statement, Nath said, “According to the previous law, the Deputy Collector had been given the charge of enforcing official, while in the Central law, finance secretary has been made the custodian of enforcement. It signifies that the act is stricter than the previous one. Apart from that, the new act provides penal sanctions from minimum one year to maximum ten years with a minimum penalty of Rs 2 lakh to 10 lakh.”
The law minister also said that the state government has been allowed by the Court to attach properties of 20 such financial institutions once active in the state.
“A total of 66 properties have been attached and a process was initiated to sell 34 of them. But, due to the Covid situation, it could not be completed in time,” he said.
Nath said the government has also received claims from 15,206 depositors duped by such companies in eight sub-divisions of the state.
“The state government also acquired such a disputed property close to international borders at Sabroom under South Tripura for which the government has paid a little over Rs 36 lakh. The integrated Check Post to be built in Sabroom is proposed on that property. It belonged to Waris Finance and Investment Limited,” he added.
Nath said, after attachment of all these properties, the depositors will be compensated considering their claims.
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