MUMBAI/CALCUTTA, July 8: Over 30,000 non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) have so far registered themselves with the Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday representing about 75 per cent of the finance companies registered with the registrar of companies (RoC).There was a virtual scramble outside the RBI office by executives representing NBFCs making all out efforts to register on the ulitmate day, Tuesday, set by the central bank.

Over 18,000 applicants filed their forms today. Besides NBFCs, chit funds and nidhis-falling under the category of miscellaneous non-banking finance companies and residuary non-banking finance companies-all rushed to beat the deadline.The last-minute rush led to extension of working hours at all the RBI offices throughout the country. Counters were kept open to accommodate the large inflow of applications till late evening today.The Calcutta office of RBI alone received 8,000 applications on Tuesday while the Mumbai office received over 2,500 applications. On an all-India basis, Calcutta accounted for the largest number of applications at 10,000, followed by Delhi with over 6,000 applicants and Mumbai (over 4,000).

Chennai, the hub of NBFC activities in southern India, received over 2,300 applications while the Ahmedabad and Lucknow offices of the central bank received over 1,200 applications each.The number of NBFCs which sought registration with the central bank on July 7 stood at just 12,834 which was still higher than the 3,537 aplications received on July 5. The central bank had issued 27,080 applications forms to the NBFCs till Monday but received only 3,537 duly filled forms from NBFCs. The trend, however, reversed today with the companies realising the RBI will not tolerate futher delays nor extend the deadline. Companies that fail to register themselves by Tuesday will be prevented from carrying out business from the immeditate following day.

The RBI has worked out a weighted system to assess the eligibility of those non-banking finance companies which have already applied for registration. Each business parameter-like reserves, liquidity postion, capital adequacy ratio, etc- will carry a particular weight and based on the total score (weight), RBI will decide on whether or not to register them.

There are over 40,000 NBFCs registered with the Registrar of Companies. With roughly 10,000 NBFCs yet to register themselves, the apex bank is seen initiating winding up measures in a bid to protect investors.

Since most of the finance companies are a part of large corporate houses, there is the likelihood of their merging into the parent company to escape the RBI directive.

Senior RBI officials have expressed their doubt over RBI's ability to supervise even the companies now registered with it. "With the department of financial companies (DFC) in Calcutta being heavily understaffed, it will be impossible for the RBI to supervise even 5,000 finance companies", said a senior RBI official on condition of anonymity. RBI governor, C Rangarajan had earlier suggested that the central bank will limit its supervision to NBFCs which have net owned funds of over Rs 1 crore and assign private auditors to monitor the rest of its activities.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.