Andhra Pradesh government is planning to frame stricter laws for preventing the growing economic offenses, often been committed in the name of offering higher returns to the innocent depositors, the state finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said here on Saturday.
The minister held a review meeting with the officials of finance and home departments on this particular subject and directed them to study the laws and penal provisions applicable in states like Tamil Nadu and Odisha against the similar white collar offenses.
“We want to modify the laws applicable to such offenses by next year after studying the practices being adopted by other states in this regard,” the minister said after the meeting.
The minister was particularly referring to the of case of Agri Gold, a real estate firm against which the state CID police had already filed a criminal case alleging the financial irregularities. The firm, however, refuted these charges.
The minister alleged that Agri Gold firm had collected Rs 6,800 crore from thousands of depositors with a promise to offer higher returns. Apart from this the firm had also raised Rs 500 crore loans from banks and financial institutions by showing Rs 70 crore fixed deposits as a security, he said. According to the minister, Agri Gold had acquired about 16,000 acres of land with the depositors money in AP, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
“Our aim is to bring a comprehensive action plan duly backed by relevant enactments to see that the common people are not duped by the the so-called chitfund and real estate ponzi firms in the name of offering higher returns or higher interest rate on the deposits they mobilise from them,"the minister added.
According to the minister, the law enforcing authorities will hereafter file suo motu cases against any firm if found violating the Reserve Bank of India norms in the state.
