In another significant development, UTI has for the first time been able to attain reconciliation of its accounts on three aspects. These reconciliation problems were prevalent till last year, but this year these problems have been resolved to make the balance sheet of "clean".

UTI executive trustee PJ Nayak said the results of the IT off-shore fund, which were taken up at last week's board of trustees meeting in Mauritius, have given UTI a reason to cheer. "We have two options.

`` Either to open the scheme for fresh subscriptions or raise fresh monies through a new vehicle. On the one hand, the global markets themselves are depressed and, on the other, there is a huge demand for Indian IT sector stocks. We have to, thus, strike a balance and will do so at the opportune time", saidNayak.

The net asset value (NAV) of the fund, has appreciated by 28.1 per cent (as on June 30) and by 50 per cent (as on October 1) in dollar terms, while in rupee terms the fund has appreciated by 67.3 per cent since inception (June 1997). The NAV of the scheme has gone up from $ 10 on launch to $ 15 as on October 1, 1998. During the same period the BSE Sensex has dropped by 30.9 per cent and the foreign exchange rate by 19.2 per cent. The India IT fund was launched last year as a close-ended pure equity fund, which was able to garner $ 50 million.

According to Nayak, the fund is the best performing off-shore fund and has given good returns in dollar terms despite the fall in the Indian rupee. "Even though the world has been discussing the negative aspects of UTI's balance sheet, there has been a good development as well. We have been able to reconcile accounts with regard to three aspects, something which we have been trying to do for a very long time," said Nayak.

UTI has been able to attainreconciliation of accounts of the unit capital of its flagship scheme US-64 and the Senior Citizens Unit Plan. Till last year, UTI did not know what the exact unit capital of these two schemes. This year, the problem has been resolved. Another area where UTI was not able to reconcile its accounts was the difference in the value of assets lying with its custodian and the assets on the investment side of UTI, i.e., the shares which have been bought by UTI. This is because the shares lying with its custodian also comprise fake certificates, lost share certificates plus those which are still lying with the registrar of companies for transfer. This year, UTI has been able to make up for this difference in the value of shares bought by UTI and those kept with its custodian.

UTI also faced a problem in its accounts when the units were purchased at one centre and the repurchase was made at the other centre of UTI. For example, if the units were bought in Mumbai and sold in Kulu Manali than a difference in theaccounts crept in. UTI has been able to make good this difference also in its accounts with the reconciliation of inter-branch accounts this year. "All this progress has been made by UTI due to increased information technology and computerisation of UTI offices all over the country," said Nayak.