Govt must ensure depositors' money: Experts

Chit Funds Bill-2019

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, November 29Financial experts and common people have demanded stricter laws to refund money in case of fall of any financial institution after Parliament passed the Chit Funds (Amendments) Bill 2019.

CL Maheshwari, an income tax lawyer, said: “The government should come out with new and stricter laws to safeguard the hard earned and precious savings of people.”

He said many chit fund companies were active in the city for the past two to three decades.

Most of them, however, ran away leaving the investors high and dry. “At present no notable chit fund company is active in the city and people who have burnt their fingers do not trust such financial institutes,” he added.

Prabhjot Singh, a textile trader, said, after the fall of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank, the trust of the business community had even shaken in the cooperative banks.

Shweta, a house wife, said apart from bank she saves her money in small monthly instalments with a social group, which includes 16 known women. In local parlance this group is called ‘Committee’. She stated that it was entirely an unregulated collection of funds and runs on trust.