NEW DELHI, May 30: The Union finance ministry has set a July 8 deadline for 30,000 odd Non Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to register themselves with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Those who do not adhere to this deadline will be wound up, highly-placed finance ministry sources told The Indian Express here today. The new registration framework has been put together by finance ministry officials in consultation with the RBI governor C Rangarajan. The latter has been summoned again to Delhi on Friday evening for urgent consultations on the CRB Caps fiasco.

All registered NBFCs will have to necessarily follow RBI guidelines on interest rate structures. The nature and tenure of deposits will also be determined by the central bank. Books of accounts of NBFCs will be subject to regular RBI sponsored inspection. The companies will also have to obey guidelines that may be issued by the RBI from time to time.

Finance ministry sources said that the RBI will be empowered to issue directions to auditors to enforce income recognition norms on NBFCs.

The registration policy will bring to an end once and for all the era of high interest rate offers by NBFCs and "blade" companies, finance ministry sources said.

According to existing laws, the minimum net worth of a NBFC should be Rs 25 lakh and 20 per cent of its profits will have to be compulsorily deposited into a reserve fund to meet contingencies.

The ministry, however, ruled out the possibility of legitimising an insurance scheme for depositors along the lines available for those who invest money in banks.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.