The Hon. (Dr.) Anil Jayantha

¶ 01 No, it is not the Divisional Secretary. The issue there is that within our existing legal framework there is room for such activities. Especially in the handling of funds, they must come under the respective Acts. However, some of these are registered under the Companies Act and have inserted small provisions under their Articles of Association. What appear as microfinance institutions are not those registered under the Microfinance Act. The Central Bank cannot supervise those that operate outside. In such cases, prosecutions have to be instituted under the Penal Code for offenses such as fraud. We are examining the issues in these. In particular, we intend to bring a new Bill relating to the microfinance sector and proceed accordingly.

¶ 02 Hon. Member, with respect to the company you raised, Privelth Global (Pvt.) Limited, the remaining issue is the same: to provide justice and return the money to the depositors. It must be proven with evidence that they accepted deposits. That has not yet been proven. They fled the country. However, we tell depositors that if there is any evidence that these persons accepted deposits, please submit it to us. Then we can act on that basis. Largely, these companies act in crafty ways and, due to gaps in our financial literacy, they avoid using documents and adopt various tactics. Nevertheless, we will intervene.