NSEL pay-in picks up

For its 11th scheduled pay-out on Tuesday, the exchange has received Rs 29 crore

Presumably fearing a spread of the action by the economic offenses wing (EOW) of the city police in the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) crisis, some borrowers of the latter have speeded up their settlement payments.

At its 11th scheduled payout on Tuesday, the exchange had got Rs 29 crore till early evening from defaulting members, the second largest since its first pay schedule on August 20. At last week’s 10th scheduled payout, it got a mere Rs 0.3 crore, the lowest since the Rs 5,600-crore payment crisis erupted.

Since then, EOW has made arrests, including of the exchange’s ex-managing director, Anjani Sinha, along with other ex-officials. They were sent to judicial custody. It also arrested Nilesh Patel, managing director of NK Proteins, the largest defaulter at NSEL, with Rs 970 crore of payment obligations.

“There is hardly any defaulting member paying, other than Topworth Group which seems to be genuinely interested in making payment in time. Wait for some more time; we would create an intensified fear among them with some more actions,” said Arun Dalmia, secretary, NSEL Investors’ Forum.

EOW has been calling defaulting members to join its investigation. It had also called on the promoter of ARK Imports, the second largest payment defaulter, with an obligation of Rs 719 crore. NSEL had earlier filed complaints against all major defaulting members, such as ARK, Lotus Refineries, NK Proteins and Vimladevi Agrotech.

According to sources, EOW had called on Surender Gupta, the promoter of PD Agroprocessors on Tuesday and is now investigating their bank accounts. With a payment obligation of Rs 640 crore, PD is the third largest defaulter. Delhi-based Mohan India and its group firm, Tavishi Enterprises, owe Rs 950 crore. The former is in settlement talks with the exchange, said a source.

So far, NSEL had received barely 12 per cent of its scheduled pay-in, getting about Rs 225 crore and disbursing proportionately among investors as against its scheduled receivables of Rs 1,922 crore.

Topworth Steels and Power has inched closer to clearing all its dues. Spin Cot Textiles and Sankhya Investments have also paid their full amount of dues.

NSEL members’ pay in the settlement
Payment schedule	Date	Amount (Rs crore)
11th	29-Oct	29
10th	22-Oct	0.3
9th	15-Oct	28.34
8th	8-Oct	2.85
7th	1-Oct	7.3
6th	24-Sep	11.45
5th	17-Sep	8.58
4th	10-Sep	16.95
3rd	3-Sep	15.37
2nd	27-Aug	12.6
1st	20-Aug	92.73

Source: NSEL website