The Finance Committee has endorsed the bill to amend the Banking Offence and Punishment Act, 2008 with amendments.
A meeting of the Committee on Monday (September 9) passed the bill with amendments, informed Committee Chairman Santosh Chalise.
The meeting has also agreed to add a provision seeking two to four years imprisonment in a cheque bounce case with the suit amount exceeding Rs 100 million.
A day ago, the Committee meeting had agreed on the provisions requiring one month imprisonment in the case involving a suit amount up to Rs 1.5 million; one to three months if the amount is Rs 1.5 million to 50 million; three months to one year jail term for Rs 50 million to 10 million; and up to a year in a suit amount above Rs 10 million.
However, some lawmakers at Monday's meeting demanded to increase the period of imprisonment in the case of a cheque bounce exceeding Rs 10 million, and their concerns were addressed.
Last year on August 8, the Council of Ministers had approved the draft of the bill. It was registered in the parliament the same year on September 2 by the then Finance Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat.
The Bill mandates an account holder to not to issue a cheque if there is no sufficient deposit in the account to make the payment.
The Bill has proposed that if the account holder does not have sufficient deposits in the bank for payment as demanded by a cheque, such cheque be returned to the bearer. If the bearer wants to prove it to be a case of cheque bounce, the respective bank should inform the account holder to make the required deposit for the payment available within 30 days.
The bill has also warranted any account holder to not issue a cheque requesting for the payment exceeding the deposit amount.
The process to establish a case as cheque bounce will be initiated if the demanded amount is not deposited in the bank within 30 days. If the account holder fails to deposit the amount in the period, the bank must return the cheque within three days, officially declaring it the case of a cheque bounce
RSS
