Funds Worth Rs 24,000 Crore Lying Unused With SEBI: Sahara Group
Sahara Group has said that funds worth Rs 24,000 crore are lying unutilized with SEBI
New Delhi:
Sahara Group on Wednesday said it was unfair to ask it to deposit more money as funds worth Rs 24,000 crore with the markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for the last nine years were lying unutilized and it hurt the interests of the business. Used to be. Group.
The statement comes a day after Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi said that Sahara has not yet fully submitted the order passed by the Supreme Court in August 2012 and the group has so far given only Rs 15,000 crore, While the total amount to be deposited. 25,781 crore is Rs.
According to SEBI’s annual report for 2020-21, the regulator had paid only Rs 129 crore to bondholders and it was maintaining an escrow account with over Rs 23,000 crore.
The Sahara Group in a statement said that the Supreme Court had on August 31, 2012 ordered the deposit of principal amount and interest, observing that the payment is to be made to each depositor which was not the case and that it would be within a period of three months. came to the notice of the court within. Giving orders.
“The Supreme Court took note of the fact that the number of claimants who were yet to be paid was very small. Therefore, asking Sahara to deposit more is a wrong statement by SEBI,” the group said.
It further said, the regulator has paid only Rs 129 crore to investors of Sahara after four rounds of advertisements in 154 newspapers in the last nine years across the country.
Sahara said that in its last advertisement published in March 2018, SEBI clarified that it will not entertain any claim received after July 2018.
“This means that there is no further claimant to pay to SEBI, which is due to the fact that most of the investors were already repaid by Sahara; and as per the Supreme Court order, an amount of Rs 24,000 crore Will be back eventually. Sahara hence there is no question of further payment,” the group said.
“It is unfair to ask Sahara to deposit any more money as this huge amount of Rs 24,000 crore is lying unutilized with SEBI for the last nine years, which is not only hurting the interests of Sahara as a business organisation, Rather it is also hampering the economic growth of our country especially in these testing times,” it added.
The group said more than 95 percent of its bondholder investors had already been repaid.
Sahara said it has deposited over Rs 24,000 crore including interest in the Sahara-Sebi escrow account since 2012, only to honor the court order as most of its investors have already been repaid. This payment is actually a double payment against a single liability, first repaid by Sahara to investors and then an equal amount deposited with SEBI, it noted.
On Tuesday, Mr. Tyagi said that SEBI is complying with the Supreme Court’s 2012 orders on the matter and the company has not yet deposited the court-ordered amount with him in full.
He had also said that the regulator has issued several advertisements asking investors/bondholders to come forward and those who have made their claims have already been paid.
As per SEBI’s annual report, it had Rs 23,191 crore money from Sahara Group bondholders as of March 2021 and the said amount was kept in an escrow account.
The amount deposited in the account includes recovery of Rs 15,473 crore and interest thereon, the report said.
