Steps to attract retail investors to MFs soon: FM

The government will unveil a slew of measures in the next few weeks to attract more people to invest in mutual funds, insurance policies and others, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said today.

"In the next few weeks, we will announce a number of decisions to attract more people to invest in mutual funds, insurance policies and other well-designed instruments," Chidambaram, who took over the reins of Finance Ministry last week for the second time in UPA government, said in a statement.

The Finance Minister has come out with a broad roadmap aimed at regaining the confidence of investors in the Indian economy.

The average asset under management (AUM) of the mutual fund industry has been falling in the last two years. The average AUM slumped to Rs 6,64,824 crore at the end of March 2012 and fall of five% last fiscal followed a decline of 11% in 2010-11 financial year.

Further, mutual fund industry's plans to launch pension products to attract retirement money is getting delayed due to taxation and other regulatory hurdles.

As part of efforts to woo investors into the capital market, the government in the 2012-13 Budget had announced Rajiv Gandhi equity scheme.

The scheme would provide 50% tax deduction to retail investors with annual income less than Rs 10 lakh, for investment up to Rs 50,000, with a lock-in period of three years.