SEBI seeks aid for tracking plantation cosDEC 24: Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has sought assistance from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and income tax authorities to improve regulation of plantation firms, SEBI chief D R Mehta said."SEBI has written to RBI and Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to participate in the working of the task forces keeping track of vanishing companies," Mehta told PTI.Market regulator was enlarging scope of task force work to include Collective Investment Schemes (CIS) like plantation firms Mehta said adding SEBI had constituted seven task forces to go into investors grievances about the companies that had raised funds from the market but were now untracable.He said some companies have issued post-dated cheques to investors and dealing with such firms would be easier with RBI's co-operation.Similarly, income tax authorities had powers to inspect details of the money raised through various schemes and track the spendings of plantation firms, he said.About 642 CIS entities with investor funds of Rs 2681 crore with them have sent information to SEBI and only 49 had filed applications for registrations, he said.The plantation firms with 111 schemes worth Rs 400 crore have claimed they had either repaid or taken steps to disburse back money to the investors, according to latest information available with SEBI.SEBI has filed public interest litigations against five CIS entities and its promoters to recover Rs 1,129 crore.
