Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tables bill to protect people from high-interest money lending agencies

Guwahati: The government of Assam introduced a bill in the assembly on Monday, which seeks to protect the economically vulnerable individuals and groups from the hardship of being charged exorbitant interest rates and coercive means of recovery by money lending agencies or microfinance institutions.

Assam Finance Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma tabled The Assam Micro Finance Institutions (Regulation of Money Lending) Bill, 2020, on the first day of Winter session of the assembly. The bill proposes "to create an effective mechanism to regulate the microfinance institutions or money lending agencies or organisations".

Earlier on December 13, Assm Cabinet approved the proposal to reign in the microfinance entities that mostly give loans to women self-help groups (SHG) at high rates.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary had said, "The proposal to bring in a new Act to control the microfinance units was passed. They have to operate as per Reserve Bank of India's norms and should not be able to levy any rate on consumers, who are mostly women SHGs from villages."

Another bill was tabled by Sarma on Monday, which helps the taxpayers, who could not avail the benefits of a liquidation scheme due to the ongoing pandemic.

This new bill, the Assam Taxation (Liquidation of Arrear Dues)(Second Amendment) Bill, 2020 seeks to extend the time limit of availing benefits of the liquidation scheme from July 31, 2020, to March 31, 2021.

Sarma said that this will further help a taxpayer to clear all of his/her outstanding dues in respect of amounts assessed for the periods up to 30th June 2017 and levied against him on or before 30th September 2020.

On behalf of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Chandra Mohan Patowary introduced The Assam Tea Plantations Provident Fund and Pension Fund and Deposit Linked Insurance Fund Scheme (Amendment) Bill, 2020. It proposes to raise the benefits of tea plantation workers.

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