Giving this information during Question Hour , finance minister Yashwant Sinha said the investigations were still in progress.

Responding to queries by R Sambasiva Rao and Aman Kumar Nagra, the finance minister admitted that noticeable increase in prices had taken place in the scrips of these companies.

Sinha said there were several factors which influenced prices in the stock market. These include expectations of the investors regarding the performance of the corporate sector and the economy in general, perceptions of the investors about economic policies of the government, developments in the international capital market, speculative activity etc.

The principal considerationsof the government and the stock market regulator, Sebi, is to ensure that the stock markets operate in an orderly and transparent manner in full compliance with the rules and regulations.

Replying to another question on investigation into the printing of duplicate share certificates by some leading industrial houses, the finance minister said the government had not undertaken any probe into the printing of duplicate share certificates.

The finance minister, however, said Sebi had conducted an inspection of the books of accounts, records, documents and computer data of Reliance Consultancy Services (RCS), registrars and share transfer agents to Reliance Industries Ltd to inquire into the issue of duplicate share certificates of RIL by RCS.

According to the inspection, he said, a total number of 4.89 lakh duplicate shares were issued by RCS during the period April 1990 to October 1995. RCS, by issuing some duplicate share certificates while the original share certificates were in existence, may haveviolated provisions of Section 84 of the Companies Act, according to the inspection report.

RCS, by not transferring and delivering the shares lodged by some investors before April 1, 1994, within two months, may have violated provisions of Section 113 of the companies act, it added.

The minister further informed the House that Sebi had suspended the certificate of registration granted to RCS under the Sebi rules with effect from February 1, 1997 to July 31, 1997 subject to the condition that from October 17, 1996 till January 31, 1997, RCS will not take up any work as a registrar to an issue and share transfer agent of any company other than seven principals who appeared before Sebi.

RCS, after the expiry of the suspension period, ending on July 31, 1997, did not apply for renewal of registration as registrar to an issue and share transfer agent. Further, Sebi had amended the Sebi regulations, 1993 to provide for an arms length relationship between an issuer and the registrar to an issue, the financeminister said.

Sebi: The government does not propose to inquire into the functioning of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on grounds of corruption in clearance of new and rights issues. Finance minister Yashwant Sinha said in a written reply. He said the government was not aware of rampant corruption in the sebi on clearance of new of rampant corruption in Sebi on clearance of new and rights issues.

Customs duty: The government has recently enhanced the customs duty on import of gold to Rs 250 per 10 gram as against the previous rate of Rs 220 per 10 gram, minister of state for finance K M R Janardanan said. In a written reply, he said the enhancement in customs duty is unlikely to have a major impact on the import of gold. There is no proposal before the government for reconsideration of the duty hike imposed in June this year.

Bad debt: The total bad debts written off by the nationalised banks during 1996-97 was around Rs 1,600 crore, of which industry and trade accounted for over 30per cent, Janarthanan said in reply to another question. He said the nationalised banks have written off bad debts to the tune of Rs 520 crore from industry and trade while Rs 151 crore of the agriculture sector. The minister said six nationalised banks have set up settlement advisory committees, each comprising a retired judge of the high court as chairman, a retired banker and general managers of banks as members, to advise the bank boards in the matter of one time settlement of cases involving irrecoverable debts from borrowers. Debt recovery tribunals are functioning at Calcutta, Delhi, Bangalore, Guwahati, Jaipur, Patna and Jabalpur and an appellate tribunal has been set up at Mumbai to assist speedy recovery of bank dues, he added.

Dearness allowance: The decision regarding another installment of dearness allowance effective July 1, 1998, will be taken well before it becomes payable in September, 1998, Sinha said. Dearness allowance to Central government employees is revised twice a year from January1 and July 1 payable with the salary for the months of March and September respectively.

Brokers: Sebi has intimated that some brokers had built up positions in the scrips of BPL Ltd, Videocon International Ltd and Sterlite Industries Ltd both in normal trading as well as in the carryforward system, finance minister Yashwant Sinha said. He said some of the recent measures taken by Sebi included incremental margins on the increased carryforward positions, margins on building up of concentrated positions in scrips in cash as well as carryforward trades and graded volatility margins linked to price movements.