House passes Bill to check unregulated deposit schemes

“If you can reach out to the people and get their money into productive means, it is the best thing that can happen,” Suresh Prabhu said, adding that India needs to increase its savings rate.

The Banning of Unregulated Deposit Scheme Bill, 2019, which was passed by the Lok Sabha last week, got unanimous support in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. The Bill is aimed at checking chit fund and Ponzi schemes in the country.

BJP leader Suresh Prabhu said the Bill was comprehensive and was required to help mobilise savings. “If you can reach out to the people and get their money into productive means, it is the best thing that can happen,” Prabhu said, adding that India needs to increase its savings rate.

Congress member T Subbarami Reddy said the “mechanism by which the depositors can be repaid without delay by attaching the assets of defaulting establishments” is a “very good clause”.

Derek O’Brien of the TMC mentioned that the Bill was the first in the House to have been scrutinised by a parliamentary committee.

MoS (Finance) Anurag Thakur, speaking in the Upper House for the first time, said that a “comprehensive Bill” was brought in based on the recommendations of the standing committee.