Economic offences have been on the rise throughout the country through the 1990s and our state is no exception to this trend. 4156 cases were reported in 2002 as compared to 3513 cases in 2001 and 2885 in 2000. Among them cheating by individuals constitute the major category. About Rs 446 crores were involved in the cases registered in 2002 as compared to about Rs 186 crores in 2001 and Rs 98 crores in 2000.Although number of cases relating to chits has increased during 2002, number of cases relating to Non-Banking Finance Companies has reduced substantially. Land scams by individuals and by cooperative housing societies have also increased substantially. Analysis reveals that four territorial clusters accounted for most of the crime reported. They are: Hyderabad city; Ranga Reddy, Nizamabad and Nalgonda districts; Vijayawada city, Krishna, Guntur, West and East Godavari dts; Chittoor and Nellore dts.

Increase in white-collar crime is a natural concomitant to development and improvement in technology, and gullibility and greed of the people to acquire more wealth in a short span of time. They easily get attracted by the offer of high returns/interest by the firms and carry short memory about the past scams by these companies.

The RBI regulates NBFCs and the companies, which float plantation schemes etc., are regulated by the SEBI. The Registrar of Cooperatives regulates cooperative housing societies and Cooperative Banks. Un-incorporated finance companies and chit fund firms are also operating and collecting deposits from the public. Deficiency in monitoring is one of the main reasons for commission of offences and then closure of firms by these companies.

Steps taken by the Government to check Economic Offences:

• Improved the monitoring mechanism on the performance of the urban cooperative banks and housing societies in the cooperative / private sector.
• A.P.Protection of Depositors of Financial Establishments Act 1999 was enacted which has enabled the Police to initiate stringent action against the defaulters. In the light of the experience gained in implementation of this Act, some amendments are being contemplated to protect the interest of depositors.
• Special attention is being paid by the police to complete investigation of these cases on priority basis.
• Training is organized for the investigating officers to investigate these economic offences.
• It has been decided to strengthen the economic offences wing in the CID at the state level by sanction of additional posts of investigating officers, experts in law, accounting etc to investigate complicated cases of fraud.
• It has been proposed to create a special court to try the economic offences in Hyderabad.

What should the public do to save themselves from becoming victims of an Economic Offence?

1. As far as the NBFCs are concerned, the public should verify the following:

• Whether the company is registered with the RBI as a deposit taking company.
• Whether the company has Net Owned Funds of Rs. 2 Crores.
• Whether the company has valid Credit Rating.
• Whether the company has filed advertisements before acceptance of public deposits.
• Whether the interest is within the limits prescribed by the RBI from time to time.
• Presently the limit is 12.5%. Beware of any one offering more.
• Public should not invest with unincorporated bodies such as individuals, proprietary or partnership firms.
• Investors should take proper receipts for their deposits.
• RBI has rejected 605 and cancelled the registration of 17 non-deposit taking companies in A.P. It has also rejected 486 and cancelled the registration of 13 deposit taking companies in A.P. In addition RBI has also rejected the applications of 23 new companies and cancelled the license of 1 new company in AP. Public should not invest in these companies.

• Beware of schemes inviting investment in plantations, agro-farms, resorts etc offering high rate of return
• Schemes offered by M/s Vijetha Agro Farms, Guntur; Southern Udyan/Southern Wonder World, Cuddapah/Kunool have failed and criminal cases have been registered against them.
• SEBI has directed many such businesses from AP to return the money to the investors.

• One in four medicines sold in the country is said to be fake. Buy medicines only from reputed Chemists.
• Insist on getting proper bills

• Do not be taken in by schemes which promise fabulous returns dependent on your recruiting members to a scheme.
• Do not invest in schemes that require heavy investment initially to be recouped by the commissions out of the investments made by the new members.

• People should buy stamps only from licensed vendors.