The Ministry of Corporate Affairs deals only with companies and not with unregistered firms which come under the jurisdiction of respective State Governments. However, an inter-ministerial Group (IMG) was constituted by the Ministry of Finance having representatives from Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Reserve Bank of India and Securities and Exchange Board of India, for better inter-agency coordination in matters to consider the issues relating to the companies engaged in Direct Selling/Network/Multi-Level Marketing.

This information was given by Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, MoS in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

Jurisdiction over unregistered MLM firms limited to state governments; central agencies coordinate on companies engaged in direct selling. Jurisdiction concerning unregistered multi level marketing firms rests with State Governments, as the Ministry of Corporate Affairs governs only registered companies; an inter ministerial group formed by the Ministry of Finance brings together central financial and market regulators to coordinate policy and responses for companies engaged in direct selling.