Govt planning to clamp down on ponzi schemes

Imported price hikes behind high inflation, says finance minister

- SURABHI

THE GOVERNMENT IS working to "clamp down" on financial apps that are taking investors for a ride, with false promises of lucrative returns, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sunday, adding that there was, however, no plan as yet to bring financial influencers under a separate regulatory framework.

"There are apps which are coming out and reaching out to people saying... your money will fetch you this much, many of whom are ponzi apps, on which we are working with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), clamping down on them like never before. (We can't allow) those ponzi apps taking away peoples' hard-earned money," she said at an event organised by Thinkers Forum Karnataka in Bengaluru.

The minister stressed that one must exercise caution while following the advice of financial influencers. "At this stage, I am not having any proposal before me to regulate them but yes, a word of caution is important. If there are three or four people giving us objective advice, there are seven others out of 10 who're probably driven by some other considerations," she said.

Social influencers and financial influencers are all out there but a very strong sense of caution is required in each one of us to make sure we do double-checking, counter-checking, talking with people, don't go as a flock into something and protect our hard-earned money, the minister further said.