The fund will not charge any entry load during the initial offer with initial expenses being borne by the asset management company. With all open-end debt funds available on a no-load basis, Dhan Bond also does not plan to put an entry load once it goes open-end. The fund will close for initial subscription on March 10 with earliest closing on February 15.

The minimum subscription in the fund has been put at Rs 5000 with investments in multiples of Rs 500 thereafter. The fund plans to offer systematic investment and withdrawal plans at a later date. The fund offers tax breaks under sections 54EA and EB. Dhan Bond '99 plans to generate steady and reasonable returns for its investors by investing in good quality debt instruments. The fund also hasthe option to invest upto 20 per cent of the corpus in equities. Although a number of open-end debt funds keep the option of investing a small part in equities, hardly any debt fund has exercised this option so far.

Besides government securities, Dhan Bond '99 plans to invest its corpus in bonds and debentures rated `A' or above by Crisil, ICRA, CARE or any other credit rating agency. While the fund will open for fresh sale of units from April 26, units can redeemed after the mandatory lock-in of 90 days, i.e. from June, 1999. After UTI and SBIMF, this will be the third open-end debt fund from a public sector AMC in less than one year. Public sector AMCs are now refraining from assuring returns. LICMF has suspended its assured return series, Dhanvarsha, citing an uncertain interest rate scenario.