Govt spends over Rs 12 cr on investor protection awareness in 3 yrs

New Delhi: The government today said it has spent Rs 12.75 crore over past three fiscal years on promoting investor awareness and protection activities.

While the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had spent Rs 4.98 crore in 2011-12, Rs 4.35 crore and Rs 3.42 crore was incurred in 2010-11 and 2009-10 on investor protection activities. The government had allocated Rs 5 crore every year for the purpose, Corporate Affairs Minister Sachin Pilot informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

[caption id=“attachment_670463” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The awareness programmes cover various cities and towns and involve distribution of booklets in different languages. Reuters[/caption]

“Investor awareness programmes are conducted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in association with the three professional institutes, namely, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Institute of Company Secretaries of India and Institute of Cost Accountants of India,” Pilot said.

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The awareness programmes cover various cities and towns and involve distribution of booklets in different languages, he said, adding, “These have bought greater awareness among the common investors.” Additionally, he said the investors can also lodge their complaints/grievances in electronic form on the MCA-21 portal.

“A similar facility has also been provided by Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on their website. Reserve Bank of India in association with banking codes and standards Board of India, carries out Outreach Programmes and Town Hall Events to educate its customers and create awareness on various banking activities,” Pilot said.

Moreover, he said, his ministry has created a sub-site on its website where companies are required to file investor-wise details of unpaid and unclaimed amounts due to investors. “This website enables investors, specially small investors, to obtain information regarding unclaimed and unpaid amounts,” he added.

To a separate question on whether the ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with National Law School of India University for academic cooperation, Pilot replied in affirmative.

He said that as per the MoU, the ministry and the law school would award degrees and courses in the area of corporate social responsibility, promote research by doctoral students, collectively bid for national/international research projects, among others.

According to Pilot, the MoU is “likely to serve the cause of research as well as development of innovative courses especially in the field of corporate social responsibility, finance, competition policy and law, economic regulation, corporate laws etc”.

PTI