RBI will support UTI: Kelkar

8220;UTI is very strong and the government will fully back it,8221; he said. UTI will honour all its commitments and will be prepared to pay the adequate price for the units that come for redemption, he said.

8220;UTI will pay the right price and will not default in meeting its obligations,8221; he said adding there was no need to worry on this account. No financial institution or bank had approached UTI for redemption of US-64 units that were large enough to cause anxiety, Kelkar added.

Kelkar said themeeting with the bank chiefs focussed on the non-performing assets NPAs of the banks as well as review of the priority sector lending. 8220;We are hopeful of meeting our credit target to the priority sector,8221; he said adding the public sector banks were also told to expedite advances to the small scale sector.

The progress of the Kissan card for providing credit to the farm sector also featured during the discussions with bank chiefs, Kelkar added. He refused to comment on the introduction of the buy back of shares for companies.

Meanwhile, chief executives of nationalised banks today ruled out any panic selling of UTI units due to fears of redemption pressures on the Unit Trust of India.

8220;There is absolutely no question of offloading UTI units as we are confident of high returns from the institution,8221; chairman and managing director of Bank of Baroda, K. kannan told PTI here.

8220;Any way our investments are distributed and only Rs 100 crore out of the investible sum of about Rs 250 crore are in the UTIshares,8221; he said after attending the meeting of the chiefs of public sector banks here.

The managing director of State Bank of Travancore, Vepa Kamesam said investment portfolios of the bank are decided by an investment committee and there are set procedures for undertaking investments.

8220;There is no panic on UTI8217;s ability to meet its commitments and we are not offloading its shares,8221; he said.

The chairman and managing director of Andhra Bank, T J Ganiga said the bank had undertaken investments prudently and UTI was providing high returns.

The managing director of State Bank of India, O P Setia also did not foresee any default problems for UTI and said 8220;nothing big should be made of the routine buying and selling of UTI8217;s shares by financial institutions or banks8221;.