People's Democracy

UTI Employees Oppose Restructuring Move

THE All India Unit Trust Employees Association has taken strong exception to the government’s move regarding the Unit Trust of India (UTI). On the face of it, the government has decided to infuse funds in the UTI to bail it out from the present crisis that has arisen due to the deficit between the redemption value and the net assets value (NAV) of its different schemes. The decision is apparently a pleasant one and gives the impression as if the government has taken it in the interest of investors.

But, according to the statement issued by the association on September 5, the real design becomes visible from the fact that, in the same breath, the government imposed the conditionality of privatisation of management of most of the UTI’s mutual fund schemes, barring a few like the US-64 and some monthly income payment schemes. The association said the measure is a double-faced one. On the one hand, the government has presented itself as saving the interest of poor investors. But, on the other hand, its aim is to cover the biggest scam unearthed in this largest mutual fund of the world.

Side by side, the government is planning to sell the UTI too to private capital whose performance in squandering away the public money is well known. This has been the experience of non-banking financial companies like JVG, Kuber, CRB and a number of others. The move also strikes at the employees’ interests and rights that are, in the process, likely to be sacrificed or compromised.

It will be noted that it is for the sake of expediting the UTI’s privatisation that the government split it into UTI-I and UTI-II.

The association has opposed the decision to privatise the UTI-II. It said, if necessary, it would chalk out a programme of agitation and resistance. It has also decided to seek cooperation from other democratic institutions and central trade union organisations in this struggle.