Only 2 days of trading at DSE in 2004

‘‘There is confusion on the quantum to be paid. The Sebi demand does not match the figures available with DSE,’’ a broker said. Former DSE President Vijay Bhushan clarified, ‘‘Initially, member-wise turnover data was compiled by an outside agency. The data sent to Sebi had discrepancies since the agency was fighting a tight deadline”. Some brokers have already moved the court against Sebi and it’s not just them who are fighting a lost battle.

‘‘We have not got an increment since 1991. There were hardly any takers for the VRS announced last year,’’ a DSE employee said.

With no trading, the main source of income for the exchange is listing fee collected from the companies. And with Sebi and the finance ministry allowing companies to delist from regional bourses, the only income source too is on the decline. In 2003-04, 397 companies delisted from DSE. Till the end of September 2004, 161 more companies pulled themselves out, with another 252 already applying for delisting.

In 2003-04, DSE’s total income declined to Rs 8.56 crore from Rs 9.59 crore in the previous financial year. But other income at Rs 4.47 crore accounted for over 50 per cent of the total income. Net profit, however, trebled to Rs 3.45 crore due to a sharp cut in staff.

DSE followed other regional exchanges in floating a subsidiary to get membership of NSE and BSE. But daily volumes here too remain low at Rs 2-3 crore.

While the government has amended the Securities Contract Regulation Act to facilitate corporatisation and demutualisation of the exchanges, DSE felt there was no need for demutualisation.