Kolkata: Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) U K Sinha on Thursday said it is now empowered to deal effectively with the ponzi menace.
"The government in July had amended the SEBI Act which will help SEBI to deal with ponzi firms now," Sinha told PTI after the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) meet here.
He said after the government issued three rounds of Ordinance to amend the SEBI Act, the regulator had got powers to carry out search and seizure operations and conduct direct recovery.
Sinha said SEBI, the capital market regulator, would also have the power to consider by way of a legal presumption of money collected beyond Rs 100 crore as a collective investment scheme (CIS).
"This is irrespective of whether the money is collected by insurance companies, chit funds or nidhi companies", Sinha said.
He said these provisions would definitely help in dealing with the ponzi menace, which had surfaced recently.
Meanwhile, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said at a press conference here today that subsequent to some ponzi schemes, there was a feeling that some of these fell in the regulatory gaps.
The state level coordination committees have been asked to meet frequently, at least four times a year, to review the situation in this regard, Rajan added.
