Indianmandarins has learnt that a high-level Inter-Ministerial Group, that has prescribed a new law to curb Ponzi schemes, has submitted its report to the government recently. The proposed law prescribes punitive jail terms and fines to curb unregulated deposits and Ponzi schemes. To be called 'Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes and Protection of Depositors' Interest Bill, 2015', the proposed law clearly demarcates deposits into regulated and unregulated categories. The proposed law defines 'Deposit' as money taken by way of advance or loan or any other form and returned in a specified period or otherwise in cash or kind or in the form of a specified service with or without any benefit - interest, bonus, profit or any other form. All unregulated deposit schemes will come under this law. For default in repayment/return of deposits on maturity, the new legislation proposes jail up to seven years or fine of not less than ₹5 lakh which can be raised to ₹25 crore or three times the amount of profits made out of such defaults, whichever is higher, or with both. A decision on the authority to administer the law will be taken after discussions on the draft. The Department of Financial Services in the Finance Ministry now has to put it up on its website for comments and discussions by stakeholders.