Rajya Sabha Clears Uti Bifurcation

The government today assured Parliament that those responsible for the mismanagement of the Unit Trust of India (UTI) would be punished even as the Rajya Sabha cleared the UTI (Transfer of Undertaking and Repeal) Bill, 2002.

While informing the House that the process of punishing those responsible for mismanaging the trust had been started, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said the matter had already been referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and "nobody will be spared if found guilty".

Referring to an allegation by members that somebody in the Prime Minister's Office was involved in the UTI scam, Singh said if "any person was involved, he would have been caught by the CBI".

The finance minister assured the House that the findings of the joint parliamentary committee, which was also probing the UTI affairs, would be considered by the government and its recommendations would be implemented if necessary.

The Rajya Sabha approved the Bill seeking the bifurcation of UTI into two companies by a voice vote, after the mover of the statutory resolution opposing the presidential Ordinance of October 29, Manmohan Singh, withdrew it and the Left parties walked out in protest. Last week, the Lok Sabha had cleared the Bill.

Singh said the government was neither distancing itself from the governance of UTI, as alleged by some members, nor abdicating its responsibility.

While it would remain committed to UTI-I because of its social content, the government would be allowing UTI-II to act as a mutual fund in competition with private players under the regulations of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), he added.

The minister said UTI-I would not be floating any new scheme and all existing commitments would be met by the government, while UTI-II would be started as a Sebi-regulated, asset-managed and market-competing scheme. Singh assured the House there would be no retrenchment of UTI employees.

All of them would be put on the UTI-II attendance register with an option that they could take six months to decide whether they wanted to take voluntary retirement, he added.