Gujarat passes bill to ease 'hardships' faced by moneylenders

The Gujarat government passed a bill in the Assembly today to amend certain provisions in the existing Gujarat Moneylenders Act, 2011, to ease "hardships" faced by moneylenders.
The original act was enacted by the Gujarat government in 2011 when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister after the then Gujarat state government felt the need for a stringent act to regulate moneylending transactions in the state, after several cases of harassment by moneylenders surfaced.
As per Section 21 of the original act, a moneylender has to maintain proper up-to-date accounts, cashbook, ledger, register of securities as well as register of debtors.

Moneylenders are also required to submit original records to the competent authority for scrutiny.
Further, under Section 22 of the act, moneylenders are required to submit detailed statements of paid as well as outstanding amounts, including interest, to borrowers within 30 days after expiry of the year.
Section 43 of this act also provides for provision of imprisonment of upto one year and a fine of Rs 10,000 on failing to comply with these provisions.

However, the present Gujarat government felt that some of these provisions are "too harsh" and needed to be amended.
While submitting the bill to amend these "harsh" provisions, Gujarat Minister for Co-operation Babu Bokhiria stated that provisions under Section 21 and Section 22 are of administrative nature.

He said that certain provisions are required to be amended suitably in order to remove hardships being faced by moneylenders.