Parliament on Tuesday passed the Sebi Amendment Bill to empower the market regulator
Picture for representational purpose
New Delhi:Parliament on Tuesday passed the Sebi Amend-ment Bill to empower the market regulator to crack down on ponzi schemes. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while piloting the Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2014, infor-med the Rajya Sabha that Sebi will have the powers to seek call data records for investigation purposes though it will not have the authority to tap telephone conversations.
The Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha by voice vote while the Lok Sabha had last week passed this Bill. “The Act has been fine-tuned and new architecture with a wider language has been introduced. Sebi has no power to tap telephone. Sebi can call for information on call data records. The power to bug or intercept is not given to Securities exchange board of India within the Act,” he said.
The Bill was brought in the backdrop of alleged ponzi schemes like the Saradha scam in which small investors were reportedly duped. The new law will empower Securities exchange board of India to conduct searches and seek information from suspected entities.
Securities exchange board of India was vested with powers to conduct search and seizure operations without prior permission by an ordinance promulgated by the UPA government. “This is too arbitrary a power. So, this power had to be tapered down,” Mr Jaitley said.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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