RBI bans Amrut Industries

RBI officials said the company owes about 7,000 FDs of over Rs 10 crore and they are alarmed by the company’s present state of affairs. Since May 1997, Amrut Industries has failed to pay even Rs 4 crore to the fixed deposit holders holders. The Reserve Bank has prepared grounds to ban the company, officials say.

Incidentally, the fixed deposits of the company were rated by ICRA as `MAA-‘ which was subsequently downgraded to `MD’ indicating default condition of thecompany. One of its corporate debtors, ITT Capital has filed a winding up petition against the company to recover its outstandings of Rs 39.62 lakh. The company showed profit of Rs 18 crore in its accounts (1994-95), which later turned out to be a loss of Rs 2 crore. After an inquiry, it came to light that the company also owes huge arrears to the income tax department. It assured the income tax department that it would pay Rs 10 lakh per month towards income tax. As the company subsequently failed to do so, the IT authorities froze all its bank accounts. Since then, Amrut has stopped all payments.