The government is drafting a central law to protect people investing in chit fund schemes and will bring the legislation very soon to Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.
Replying to a debate on 'The Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2017' in the Lok Sabha, he said there is a need for a pan-India law to deal with chit fund schemes in addition to state laws which already exist.
During the debate, opposition members had raised the issue of chit funds due to which investors have been duped and sought to know from the government what steps it was planning to take to deal with this malaise.
"SEBI is looking into the existing chit fund cases. There are state laws to deal with them in Bengal and Odisha. But what to do with those who run operations throughout the country? We are drafting a central law and very soon we will bring it before you," Jaitley said.
He said the chit fund schemes attract investors by offering a meagre 1-1.5 per cent interest rate higher than what is given by banks.
Jaitley had in the 2017-18 Budget announced that the government will amend the 'Multi-state cooperative Act' as there was an urgent need to protect the poor from dubious chit fund schemes, operated by unscrupulous entities.
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