Sinha, who was making a statement in response to a call-attention motion of BJP's Narendra Mohan in the Rajya Sabha, said the depreciation was a fallout of the after-effects of worldwide and domestic adverse movement of stock price.

He said the domestic stock index fell 21 per cent between May 5 and June 30, 1998. Since the trust decided to charge the depreciation to the reserve account of US-64, the latter showed a negative balance of Rs 1098.49 crore.

The finance minister said that on June 29 this year, when income distribution of 20 per cent amounting to Rs 3125 crore was announced under US-64, it was out of the net income of Rs 3222 crore earned during the year and income distribution was solely from theearning made during the year.

Sinha informed that the trust has set up a six-member expert committee headed by IDFC chairman Deepak Parekh to review the US-64 scheme to further strengthen it for mobilisation of domestic savings and investment in the capital market.

He said that the UTI has already put on record that that none of its schemes has a negative net asset value while certain schemes like Unit Scheme-64, Unit Linked Insurance Plan and Charitable Religious Trust Scheme are not NAV-driven.These funds have been regularly giving a good return to the investors while certain other schemes like monthly income scheme and children schemes give an assured rate of return and are also not NAV-based.

The finance minister said the US-64 has over the years built up an overwhelming base of small investors and as of june 1998, the assets of the portifolio stood at Rs 21,738 crore and the investor base was approximately 21 million.

CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta demanded amendment of the UTI Act to provide foraccountability of the UTI which was neither under government control nor under the Securities Exchange Board of India.

Alleging that the UTI was in league with big coporate houses, he said its operations lacked transparency.

Dasgupta said that common investor's confidence had been shaken when the government recently had to intervene to stand guarantee for its investments.

Stating that there was something serious wrong with the UTI, the member said it had to fall back on its reserve fund to pay dividend on US-64 units in the last two years as its income was not sufficient.

Janeswar Mishra of the Samajwadi party said the government must do something to streamline UTI affairs as millions of small investors had invested their hard earned money in this financial institutions.

S Ramachandran Pillai of the CPI-M asked the trust to ensure enough liquidity and assured return for restoring the confidence of the investors. He further said that all governmental controls over the trust should be removed

COPaulose of the CPI-M requested the chair to direct the government to come out with measures to reinstate the investors confidence.

Earlier, Janeshwar Mishra, taking part in the discussion, urged the government to put the uti under the overall control of the Reserve Bank to improve its various financial conditions.

Congress member Vayalar Ravi demanded to know from the finance minister what long-terms measures were being taken to protect investor confidence in the UTI.

He also wanted the government to make a clear statement on the excact losses suffered so that investors were protected from thos who play the stock market.

Ravi also suggested the institution of a special audit into UTI accounts and the value of shares which he said could be highly inflated.

According to Viduthalai Virumbi of the DMK unless the perpetrators of the fraud on UTI were punished investors were cetain to lose confidence in the institution.

He also said there was a sore need for the UTI administration to betotally revampedand transparency brought into its functioning.``The net asset value has been hidden from the public,'' he charged.