Srinagar, Mar 10: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Tuesday appointment of Administrative Secretary, Finance Department as Competent Authority for discharging functions under Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, which bars all deposit schemes that are not officially registered with the government from either seeking or accepting deposits from customers. The appointment has been made in terms of Section 7 (1) of the Act which calls for the appropriate Government, by notification, to appoint one or more officers not below the rank of Secretary to that Government, as the Competent Authority for the purposes of the Act passed by the parliament last year.
With the commencement of the Act, all the Unregulated Deposit Schemes stand banned.
No deposit taker can, directly or indirectly, promote, operate, issue any advertisement soliciting participation or enrolment in or accept deposits in pursuance of an Unregulated Deposit Scheme.
Also no deposit taker, while accepting deposits pursuant to a Regulated Deposit Scheme, shall commit any fraudulent default in the repayment or return of deposit on maturity or in rendering any specified service promised against such deposit. Also no person by whatever name called shall knowingly make any statement, promise or forecast which is false, deceptive or misleading in material facts or deliberately conceal any material facts, to induce another person to invest in, or become a member or participant of any Unregulated Deposit Scheme. “A prize chit or a money circulation scheme banned under the provisions of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act, 1978 shall be deemed to be an Unregulated Deposit Scheme under this Act,” the legislation reads.