The Sahara group company has again published similar ad which earlier came under the scanner of the RBI



Sahara India Financial Corp Ltd (SIFCL) has issued an advertisement in newspapers, on Saturday, extending the premature payment to its depositors’ to 31 March 2012. However, the Sahara group company has not given any reason for it. The latest ad is identical to earlier one issued by the company in August and also does not have logo of the company or signature of any official.
 
The August ad issued by stated that it would repay its total liabilities of Rs73,000 crore by December 2011, four years ahead of the deadline. However, this ad came under the scanner of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The apex bank was examining the company's claim about repaying its total liabilities and was looking into the trail of the deposits as well as the authenticity of the print advertisement.

In its recent announcement the ad says, “In continuation to our pre-payment notice published in various newspapers during the month of August 2011, as regards to pre-mature payment of entire deposits of liabilities by December 2011, this is to inform that the Board, on the request of all concerned people including our Honourable Depositors, has extended the date for making the pre-mature payment of the entire deposit liability from 31 December 2011 to 31 March 2012. Subsequent to this pre-payment, the company will have no liability of single paisa.”

Expert pointed out that the claim of making pre-mature payment of deposits of Rs73,000 crore four years ahead of the due date, conveys a false and misleading impression about the financial strength of the company.

The advertisement has once again set off a discussion on whether the RBI should formulate rules about disclosures in advertisements issued by regulated entities. For instance, this particular Sahara advertisement does not have the logo of the company and the signatory has been identified only by the designation.
(http://www.moneylife.in/article/sahara-india-financials-ad-announcing-repayment-of-all-deposits-by-december-comes-under-rbi-scanner/19464.html)

Moneylife had reliably learnt that the company's total liability is around Rs5,000 crore. But even this may not be a cash repayment, and may well be a transfer of deposits to another entity.

In 2008, the RBI had directed SIFCL, which is a residual non-banking finance company, not to accept any deposits and to repay the depositors on maturity, after it found that the company was not complying with the rules and regulations that are laid down for this activity.
 
The company, however, challenged the directive of the RBI and the matter went up to the Supreme Court, which asked the apex bank to provide SIFCL a personal hearing and make a fresh order.

Subsequently, the RBI issued a fresh directive to SIFCL, asking the company to bring down its aggregate liability to depositors to zero by 30 June 2015 and repay its depositors on maturity.

The company could not be reached as the phone number of its corporate communication department, given on its website, is invalid.  Even our e-mail message sent by them seeking reason for extending the payment date, bounced back.

In June this year, market regulator SEBI also restrained two other Sahara group units, Sahara Commodity Services Corp (earlier known as Sahara India Real Estate Corporation) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp, from accessing the securities market to raise funds till payments are made to the satisfaction of the market regulator.