The Arunachal Pradesh Money Landing (Regulation) Act, 2018
The Arunachal Pradesh Money Landing (Regulation) Act, 2018
The Arunachal Pradesh Money Lending (Regulation) Act, 2018 controls private money-lending operations across Arunachal Pradesh to protect borrowers from predatory financial practices. It applies to individuals, undivided Hindu families, non-NBFC companies, and unincorporated bodies engaged in lending money or pawn-broking within the state, while exempting formal banks, co-operative societies, and government institutions. The statute mandates that private lenders obtain an annual licence approved by local Gram Sabhas and Panchayats, maintain transparent account books, and adhere to government-capped interest rates without charging compound interest. Crucially, it safeguards ordinary citizens by barring unlicensed lenders from enforcing loan recovery through civil courts, invalidating land transfers taken as illegal loan security, prohibiting the arrest of agricultural debtors for unpaid decrees, and strictly penalizing harassment or molestation by debt collectors.
- 1. Short title, extent and commencement
- 2. Definition
- 3. Explanation,- For the purposes of this clause, an "artisan" means a person who does not employ more than ten workers in a manufacturing process on any one day of the twelve months immediately preceding.
- 4. Money-lender not to carry on business of money-lending except for area under licence and except in accordance with terms and conditions of licence
- 5. Application for licence
- 6. Grant of licence and entry in register
- 7. Registrar of Money Lenders
- 8. Refusal of issue of licence
- 9. Revisionary power of Registrar General
- 10. Term of licence
- 11. District Registrar's power to cancel licence
- 12. Levy of inspection fee
- 13. Suits by money-lenders not holding licence
- 14. Companies Act, 1956, or the Companies Act, 2013, to realise the property of a money-lender.
- 15. Registrar General and his subordinates to have powers of Civil Court
- 16. Power of authorized office to require production of records or documents
- 17. Disposal of property pledged with money-lender carrying on business of money-lending without valid licence
- 18. Return of immovable property acquired in course of money-lending
- 19. Court's power to cancel or suspend licence
- 20. Court in appeal or in revision.
- 21. Persons debarred from doing money-lending during period of suspension or cancellation of licence
- 22. Person whose licence is suspended or cancelled not to apply without giving particulars of endorsement or of disqualification
- 23. Promissory note, Bond etc. to be factual
- 24. Duty of money-lender to keep accounts and furnish copies
- 25. The money-lender shall maintain the duplicates of such receipts in a separate register.
- 26. Fees for certain statements supplied to debtors and Assistant Registrar
- 27. Debtor not bound to admit correctness of accounts
- 28. Procedure of Court in suit regarding loans
- 29. Power of Court to limit interest recoverable in certain cases
- 30. Power of Court to direct payment of decretal amount by instalment
- 31. Limitation on rates of interest
- 32. Prohibition of charge for expenses on loans by money-lenders
- 33. Assignment of loans
- 34. Application of Act as to assignees
- 35. Re-opening of transactions
- 36. Explanation,- For the purposes of this section, "excessive interest" means interest at a rate which contravenes any of the provisions of section 31.
- 37. Deposit in Court of money due to money-lenders
- 38. Calculation of interest
- 39. Penalty for doing money-lending without valid licence
- 40. Penalty for making false statement
- 41. Obtaining licence under fictitious name, carrying on money-lending at a place not mentioned in licence, etc
- 42. Penalty for wrong entry in promissory note, Bond etc
- 43. Penalty for contravention of section 24 or 25
- 44. Penalty for charging rate of interest in contravention of section 31
- 45. Penalty for molestation
- 46. General provisions regarding penalties
- 47. Offences by corporations etc
- 48. Certain offences to be cognizable
- 49. No arrest and imprisonment in execution of decree for money against agricultural debtors
- 50. Every officer to be public servant
- 51. Every officer of the Government acting under the provisions of this Act shall be deemed to be a public servant within the meaning of section 21 of the Indian Penal Code.
- 52. No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against the Registrar General, or any authority for anything done or purported to have been done in good faith in pursuance of the provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder.
- 53. Power to make Rules
- 54. Power to remove difficulty
PDF: pending for this language.