Bengaluru: Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said that the central government is working with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to stop Ponzi apps from siphoning off hard earned money. Gullible investors. However, he added that there is currently no proposal to regulate financial influencers on social media.
Stating that investors should be wary of influencers, he said that if there are three or four people who are giving us great advice, there could be seven out of 10 who might be inspired by some other idea. .
Speaking at the Thinkers’ Forum in Tumakuru (Karnataka), Sitharaman said, “If there are three-four people who give us objective advice, there are seven out of ten others who are probably inspired by some other idea. There are also apps that Reaching out to people and saying we can do this, we can do that. Your money will get you so much. Many of them are Ponzi, the apps we are working on with the concerned ministry, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and with the Reserve Bank and crack down on them like never before, so that we don’t get Ponzi apps that take away hard earned money.”
Sitharaman had a word of caution for people
Cautioning investors against Ponzi apps, Sitharaman said investors should do their due diligence and not get carried away by claims of lucrative returns made by them. “Social influencers and financial influencers are all out there, but each of us needs a strong sense of caution to make sure we don’t double check, cross check, herd into something And hence protect the hard-earned money,” he said.
‘No proposal to regulate financial influencers on social media’
When asked about regulating social influencers and financial influencers, he said, “I have no proposal to regulate them at this stage.”
In 2019, the government enacted a law called the Unregulated Deposit Schemes Act, 2019, which prohibits unregulated entities from collecting deposits and defrauding the poor and their hard-earned savings. As per the Act, any deposit taker who solicits deposits in contravention of section 3 shall be punishable with imprisonment of not less than one year and which may extend to five years.
As per the law, the depositors will have the first claim on the recovered money and there are some exceptions to the proposed law, including real estate firms and money collected from friends and relatives. It seeks to help tackle the menace of illegal deposit-taking activities in the country, which according to the government currently take advantage of regulatory gaps and lack of strict administrative measures to dupe poor and gullible people of their hard-earned money. are picking up
(With PTI inputs)
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