UTI panel identifies deals for reference to govt

On the 1994 private placement in Reliance Industries Ltd, the UTI board had, on April 11, decided to refer this to the finance ministry straight away, since this was already found to be a fit case for reference to a pre-investigative body by the Tarapore panel. UTI sources said reports on the second set of investments had also begun coming in to UTI from the auditors.

On the crucial issue of the shortfall in Monthly Income Plan 97 (MIP-97), UTI is abiding by the Sebi directive to dip into its development reserve fund (DRF) for meeting it, the officials said. However, for the future shortfalls, UTI is still awaiting a final Sebi decision. ‘‘Letters have already gone out to investors on the MIP-97. The responses have also started coming in,’’ officials said. UTI has offered three options to investors — redemption of MIP-97 units, switching over to any other scheme of UTI, or switchover to a new MIP substitute specially designed for MIP-97 unit holders.

UTI’s DRF currently has around Rs 1,600 crore of funds, and the expected shortfall in MIP-97 is around Rs 460 crore. There are a number of other MIPs coming up for redemption over the next several months, going up to year 2004.

In the offer document of the MIP-97, UTI has mentioned that any shortfall would be met out of DRF, and hence Sebi had also taken that line and asked UTI to pay out the shortfall for the scheme from the reserve fund.