MCA starts collecting information on franchises

“The process of collection of information about all the franchises of the IPL by our ministry has started. We will be doing due diligence to know the ownership pattern of the franchises,” Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Salman Khurshid said. However, the minister made it clear that the MCA on its part was not conducting any probe.
“My ministry is merely collecting information which otherwise the franchise companies (of IPL) would have to file in the normal course,” he said.

The MCA will be doing the due diligence as lot of queries has been raised about the ownership pattern of the franchises associated with the IPL, Khurshid said. The MCA had last week directed the Registrar of Companies to collect all details on the IPL franchises, including the bidding process, sweat equity, memorandum of association and also franchise agreement.

Khurshid, had also clarified that the MCA would be guided by the directives of the Finance Ministry if it was required to take some more action on the IPL issue. “If the ministry wants the MCA to go ahead and probe other issues involving the IPL, it will go ahead, but as of now the department has ordered scrutiny of documents,” he had said.