Parliamentary panel to examine chit fund laws

NEW DELHI: Left parties have managed to get the standing committee on finance to examine laws that regulate chit funds so that it can be made more affective. The committee headed by former finance minister Yashwant Sinha is expected ask top officials of the ministries of finance, revenue and corporate affairs to depose before it. The panel is likely to take up the matter on May 17 and at its next meeting on May 24, representatives of RBI and Sebi may be called.


The move comes amid the Saradha chit fund scam in which several leaders of West Bengal’s Trinamool Congress are alleged to be involved. CPI’s Gurudas Dasgupta, who was planning to bring a private members bill in Parliament, seeking a ban on chit funds, said he had requested Sinha to take up a discussion on laws regulating chit funds in the standing committee.

“I told him that chit funds had become a national menace and that it was a matter of urgent public importance. These chit funds operate under a central law while the state government has a role to play,” he said. The Saradha scam is expected to come up when the panel discusses chit funds. “Why was there no action earlier? What is the use of a regulator if such things can continue? Chit funds are a fraud. I will try to bring a private members bill to ban it in the next session. I am talking to experts to formulate the bill,” Dasgupta said.