Ase Wields Machete On Costs, Slashes Salaries

The Ahmedabad Stock Exchange (ASE), at its annual general meeting held today, passed a resolution to roll back salaries of its staff members with effect from October 1, 2001.

This resolution alone would help ASE effect an annual savings of Rs 35 lakh - Rs 25 lakh from the annual wage bill and Rs 12 lakh from the bonus-allowances payout.

ASE sources said that the above roll back in the annual wage bill was jointly worked out by the elected members of the ASE board of directors and the ASE employees and agreed upon on Thursday itself.

Based on that mutual agreement arrived at on Thursday, the resolution was drafted and passed at today's AGM.

"Though the employees are not happy with the planned reduction, this move was necessitated as ASE brokers have been lately protesting against the large outflow of around Rs 162 lakh annually from the ASE coffers on account of salary expenses alone," they revealed.

At the AGM it was also decided to write off bad debts to the tune of Rs 2.72 crore on account of listing fees not paid by many companies. ASE had tried its best to recover the amount by following up with the concerned companies and also by issuing legal notices.

But despite all these measures it failed to recover these dues. Therefore finally it was decided to write off the above amount.

The other resolutions passed at the AGM today include decision to foray into the commodities market as well as to commence derivatives trading at ASE.

A meeting to discuss the further course of action with regard to setting up facilities for commodities trading at ASE would be held at the ASE premises tomorrow (Saturday).

Here it may be mentioned that after the Sebi introduced compulsory rolling settlement, ASE has witnessed its daily turnover nosedive from Rs 250 crore to Rs 25 crore. This has adversely affected the earnings of the exchange.

Hence lately the ASE members have been mulling various cost cutting measures.