Securities and Exchange Board of India chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch on Thursday stated the Sahara matter will proceed for the capital markets regulator even after the demise of the group’s founder Subrata Roy.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Ficci occasion, Buch stated for Sebi, the matter was about an entity’s conduct and it’ll proceed no matter whether or not a person is alive or not.
Roy handed away in Mumbai on Tuesday night time on the age of 75 after battling a protracted sickness.
Rs 25,000 crore with Sebi
The undistributed funds totalling over Rs 25,000 crore mendacity with the capital markets regulator Sebi’s account have come again into focus after the demise of Roy.
He confronted a number of regulatory and authorized battles in connection together with his group corporations that had been accused of circumventing laws with Ponzi schemes, allegations his group at all times denied.
In 2011, capital markets regulator Sebi ordered two Sahara Group corporations — Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIREL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd (SHICL) — to refund the cash raised from almost 3 crore traders by means of sure bonds often known as Optionally Fully Convertible Bonds (OFCDs).
This order got here after the regulator dominated that the funds had been raised by the 2 corporations in violation of its guidelines and laws. After an extended technique of appeals and cross-appeals, the Supreme Court on August 31, 2012 upheld Sebi’s instructions asking the 2 corporations to refund the cash collected from traders with 15 per cent curiosity.
Sahara was finally requested to deposit an estimated Rs 24,000 crore with Sebi for additional refund to traders, although the group has been sustaining that it had already refunded greater than 95 per cent of traders straight.
According to the capital markets regulator’s newest annual report, the Sebi issued Rs 138.07 crore in refunds over 11 years to traders of two Sahara Group corporations.
Meanwhile, the quantity deposited in specially-opened financial institution accounts for the reimbursement has risen to greater than Rs 25,000 crore. In the absence of claims from a majority of the bondholders of the 2 Sahara firms, the entire quantity refunded by Sebi inched up by nearly Rs 7 lakh over the past fiscal 2022-23, whereas the stability in Sebi-Sahara refund accounts rose by Rs 1,087 crore throughout the yr.
Going by the annual report, Sebi obtained 19,650 purposes involving 53,687 accounts as of March 31, 2023. Of these, “refunds have been made concerning 17,526 applications involving 48,326 accounts for an aggregate amount of Rs 138.07 crore, including the interest amount of Rs 67.98 crore.” The remaining purposes had been closed resulting from their information not being traceable within the knowledge offered by two Sahara Group corporations.
In its earlier replace, Sebi had put the entire quantity refunded by it as of March 31, 2022, at Rs 138 crore regarding 17,526 purposes.
Further, Sebi stated beneath numerous orders handed by the Supreme Court and the attachment orders handed by the regulator, an combination quantity of Rs 15,646.68 crore has been recovered by it as of March 31, 2023. This quantity together with the accrued curiosity after due refunds to the eligible bondholders was deposited in nationalised banks when it comes to the judgment dated August 31, 2012, of the Supreme Court.
As of March 31, 2023, the entire quantity deposited in nationalised banks is round Rs 25,163 crore,” Sebi said. This quantity stood at Rs 24,076 crore, Rs 23,191 crore, and Rs 21,770.70 crore as of March 31, 2022, March 31, 2021, and March 31, 2020, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Centre in August began the method to refund Rs 5,000 crore of depositors whose funds are struck in 4 cooperative societies of Sahara Group.
Before this, Cooperation Minister Amit Shah launched the ’CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal’ in July to facilitate the return of the cash to traders. Around 18 lakh depositors have been registered on the portal.
In March, the federal government introduced that the cash could be returned to 10 crore traders of the 4 cooperative societies inside 9 months.
The announcement adopted a Supreme Court order directing the switch of Rs 5,000 crore from the Sahara-Sebi refund account to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS).
(With PTI inputs)
