Under a Supreme Court order, bondholders of two Sahara companies were asked to return money along with interest to nearly three crore investors in August 2012. In the absence of claims from bondholders, the total amount refunded by SEBI during the last financial year 2021-22 only increased by Rs 9 crore. At the same time, the balance in SEBI-Sahara refund accounts increased by Rs 1,515 crore during this period.
SEBI said in its annual report that it had received 19,650 applications till March 31, 2022, involving total refund claims of Rs 82.31 crore. Out of this, it issued refund of Rs 138 crore including interest of Rs 68 crore in 17,526 cases. Earlier, in the information given by SEBI, it was told that till March 31, 2021, it has given a total refund of Rs 129 crore.
The remaining applications were closed either due to their records not being traceable in the documents or data provided by two Sahara Group firms — Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIREL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation Ltd (SHICL).
Read also: Saradha Group properties will now be auctioned on November 9: SEBI
In its previous update, SEBI had put the total amount refunded by it as of March 31, 2021 at Rs 129 crore (concerning 19,616 applications).
SEBI further said pursuant to various orders passed by the Supreme Court and the attachment orders passed by the regulator, an aggregate amount of Rs 15,507 crore has been recovered by it as of March 31, 2022.
“These amounts along with interest earned on them after providing for making refunds to the bondholders have been deposited in various nationalised banks in terms of the judgment dated August 31, 2012 of the Supreme Court. As of March 31, 2022, the total amount deposited in these banks is Rs 24,076 crore,” SEBI said in a statement.
This amount stood at Rs 23,191 crore and Rs 21,770.70 crore as of March 31, 2021 and March 31, 2020 respectively.
(The writer is CEO, Track2Realty)
Ravi Sinha is a journalist with nearly two decades of cross-discipline media exposure. He is the CEO of real estate think-tank group Track2Realty. He has been writing extensively on the real estate sector for nearly a decade. Evaluation of real estate brand performance is his expertise and he has immense insight into consumers’ psychograph in the property market.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ravitrack2media
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