<span style="color: #222222;">The Lok Sabha has passed the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Bill, 2019 unanimously. <br />'' <br />'' The bill seeks to provide for a comprehensive mechanism to ban the unregulated deposit schemes other than deposits taken in the ordinary course of businesses and to protect the interest of depositors. <br />'' <br />'' The proposed legislation also provides for attachment of properties or assets and subsequent realisation of assets for repayment to depositors. <br />'' <br />'' It also provides for severe punishment ranging from one year to 10 years and pecuniary fines ranging from two lakh to fifty crore rupees to act as a deterrent. <br />'' <br />'' The bill also proposes adequate provisions for repayment of deposits in cases where such schemes nonetheless manage to raise deposits illegally. <br />'' <br />'' The bill will replace the ordinance promulgated earlier in this regard. Replying to a debate on the bill, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said, this is a comprehensive bill which will give power to seize properties of defaulters who ran away with the depositors' money. <br />'' <br />'' He said, the government is committed to save the money of poor people so that they can not be duped by Ponzi schemes. He said, the bill will first take care of the interest of depositors. <br />'' <br />'' He said, under the new legislation, the framing of rules has been left to the States. In a clarification, Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said,  the government has not written off any bank loans and the banks will continue to recover their money from the defaulters.<br />'' <br />'' Initiating the discussion on the bill, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury fo Congress stressed the need for making more stringent law to check Ponzi schemes. He demanded a complete ban on such schemes. Members from other political parties including BJP, Shiv Sena, TMC, DMK, BJD and CPI participated in the discussion.</span><br />''