The Union Cabinet is likely to approve soon the Micro Financial Sector (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2009 which seeks to make NABARD the sector regulator.
The Finance Ministry has prepared the Cabinet note for the new Bill as the old Bill lapsed with the expiry of the 14th Lok Sabha, official sources said.
The objective of the Bill is to ensure development and orderly growth of the micro-finance sector in rural and urban areas.
It aims to provide an enabling environment for ensuring universal access to integrated financial services, especially to women and certain disadvantaged sections.
The government had tabled the Micro Financial Sector Bill in March 2007 in the Lok Sabha. The Bill was subsequently referred to the Standing Committee on Finance.
The content of the new Bill remains more or less same, the sources said.
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Once it is cleared by the Cabinet, the ministry would push it in the Budget session itself, they added.
The new Bill entrust the function of development and regulation of the micro financial sector to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India.