Of this, Rs 400 crore has come through US-64 sales. The rest Rs 500 crore has come through its growth and income schemes, Rajalakshmi scheme for children and the Bond Fund.

The trust had raised Rs 300 crore through US-64 sales in October, 1997. US-64 sales are up 33 per cent from the October, 1997, figure, which, experts say, is commendable, given that the scheme attracted a lot of adverse publicity.

Trust officials are, however, tightlipped about the extent of repurchases during the period, which, sources say, could be fairly high as well. The net inflow through the US-64 scheme could be negative, they say.

In the first half of October, the US-64 scheme had faced redemption of Rs 650 crore. The figure could have been much higher by the month-end. UTI officials, however, said repurchases had sloweddown towards the second half of the month.

The heartening fact for UTI is that around 1.6 lakh new investors have made investments in UTI schemes in October. The total number of unitholders in the US-64 scheme is 2.2 crore. "We have added another 1.6 lakh new investors to the pool of UTI in October," said a senior trust official.

"The number of investors coming for redemption now is much less than the earlier figure, as the initial shock has given way to more logical thinking. In fact, raising the sales and repurchase price of US-64 further has helped investors. This has showed that the scheme is still a safe investment," said a source at UTI.

UTI is finding out ways to cope with the problem of a steep depreciation in its assets that has rendered its reserve position negative.

Towards this, UTI has set up a six-member committee to suggest a strategy for restructuring the US-64 scheme. The committee is chaired by Housing Development Finance Corporation chairman Deepak Parekh, deputy governor of ReserveBank of India and former trust acting chairman Jagdish Capoor, State Bank of India chairman MS Verma, former UTI trustee SH Khan, chartered accountant Rajendra Chitale and senior economic advisor to the finance ministry Arvind Virmani.

The committee will look at the portfolio of US-64 and recommend ways how the current portfolio of US-64 could be restructured to zero in on the scheme's hidden potential and how investors confidence can be maintained, said a senior trust official.

Long-term prospects of the scheme will be looked into keeping in mind the short- and medium-term needs of the scheme, he said. The committee is likely to submit its report in a month.