Actions against nonbanking financial companies (NFBCs) have been intensified, this was observed at a Slate-level Coordination Committee meeting on NBFCs held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at the State Secretariat on Wednesday.
Padhi directed the district police authorities to keep strict vigil over suspicious and illegal collection of money from people by any company on various pretexts and inform the State headquarters regularly like intelligence sharing every fortnight. A definite format for such reporting was devised and circulated to all SPs.
Development Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) R Balakrishnan suggested developing another line of information sharing from panchayat to State levels.
The meeting discussed about the model standard operating procedure (SOP) for investigating cases under the OPID Act and coordination among regulating and enforcing agencies. The Chief Secretary advised to intensify awareness building activities about the newly-emerging fraudulent companies under disguised pretexts and with alluring offers.
The website Sachet launched by the RBI was found quite useful as a link between people and the regulatory authorities. The website contains agenda notes of SlCC meetings, actions taken against complain, etc. It provides the provision to the people for lodging complains and sharing information about illegal collection of money. The website also contains information about registered entities, relevant central and state statues and frequently-asked questions (FAQs). There is also a provision that a person can share information without revealing his identity.
Besides, the issue relating to collection of money by some cooperative societies from nominal members was discussed at the meeting. The Chief Secretary directed the Registrar of Cooperative Societies to strictly ban such activities and bring necessary amendments to the existing law. The Registrar of Companies, present at the meeting, appraised that actions have been taken for verification of the registered office addresses and existence of around 270 companies. So far, 133 have been found to have no existence. Show-causes have been issued against 85 companies. The SEBI DGM informed that orders have been passed against 21 entities alleged under illegal fund mobilisation in Odisha.
Crime Branch Special DG BK Sharma, RBI GM in charge of Director Prasant Kumar Das, EOW IG Arun Bothra and Director of Institutional Finance Tapan Kumar Pradhan, among others. participated in discussions.