Lok Sabha Question No. 435 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-02-03
Subject: Google Personal Loan Applications
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Kanakmal Katara

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 435

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 03-02-2021

## GOOGLE PERSONAL LOAN APPLICATION

## 435.   SHRI KANAKMAL KATARA:

Will the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology be pleased to state :

- (a) the number and the details of complaints received by the Government against Google Personal Loan Applications along with action taken by the Government thereon till date; and
- (b) whether Google personal Loan Applications are not complying with the local laws and rules and if so, the reaction of the Government thereto?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

- (a):    Ministry  of  Electronics  &  Information  Technology  (MeitY)  has  received  a  number  of  public grievances against frauds and the malpractices by few online instant loan applications available on Internet  including  on    Google  Playstore.  The  complaints  are  mainly  related  to  high  interest  rates, alleged  collection  of  personal  data  and  its  misuse,    fraudulent  and  unlawful  practices  of  physical threats and use of other coercive methods for recovery of loan. Few cases have also been filed in the courts.

'Police'  and  'Public  order'  are  State  subjects  as  per  the  Constitution  of  India  and  States/UTs  are primarily  responsible  for  prevention,  detection,  investigation  and  prosecution  of  crimes  including misuse of social media through their law enforcement machinery. The Law Enforcement Agencies take legal action as per provisions of law against the cyber crime offenders.

A National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (www.cybercrime.gov.in) operated by Ministry of Home Affairs facilitates public to report all types of cybercrime incidents. The incidents/complaints reported on  this  portal  are  routed  automatically  to  the  Law  Enforcement  Agencies  of  respective  States/UTs based on the information provided by the public.

Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology  has  also  taken  up  the  matter  with  Google  for prevention, detection and removal of such fraudulent Apps from their Playstore.

Reserve  Bank  of  India  has  issued  a  press  release  dated  23  December  2020  stating  that  legitimate public lending activities can be undertaken by banks, NBFCs registered with RBI and other entities who are regulated by the State Governments under appropriate statutory provisions such as Money Lending Acts. Members of public were cautioned not to fall prey to such unscrupulous activities and were requested to verify the antecedents of the company/ firm offering loans online or through mobile apps.

- (b): As conveyed by Google, personal loan applications available on the Google Play Store are bound by the Play Store's terms of the 'Google Play Developer Distribution Agreement', which inter alia , requires app developers to use the Play Store only for purposes that are permitted by applicable law, regulation, or generally accepted practices or guidelines in the relevant jurisdictions.

As  per  the  'Google  Play  Developer  Policy',  financial  services  apps  that  offer  personal  loans  are required  to  disclose  key  information  such  as  minimum  and  maximum  periods  of  repayment, maximum annual percentage rate, and a representative example of the total loan cost. To help further ensure that users are not subject to unfair terms, only personal loan apps with full repayment required in greater than or equal to 60 days from the date the loan is issued are permitted. Upon being notified by law enforcement agencies of the availability of certain money lending apps that were possibly not in compliance with the applicable legal and regulatory framework, Google has th already removed about 100 such Apps since December 2020 till 20 January2021.

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