Union minister of state for finance Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil said on Saturday that a special cell has been set up at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to find out the number of defaulting NBFCs and the deposits blocked with them. "The compilation of this information will be completed in the next two months," he added.

On the recovery of non-performing assets (NPAs), Vikhe-Patil said the defaulters will be allowed to repay the loans in instalments. He said a list of 100 big defaulters will be announced. Punitive action will be taken if they failed to make the repayment in the stipulated time period.

Vikhe-Patil said the Centre has decided thathenceforth, disinvestment proceeds would not be considered on the receipts side of the budget. The disinvestment funds would be diverted for social purposes, he added.

On the disinvestment target of Rs 10,000 crore for the current year, he said the Government has raised some amount through this route. However, it was now engaged in an exercise to minimise and cut expenditure to make up for the shortfall.

The disinvestment programme would now be carried forward only after the new committee under Arun Jaitley submits its report, he said.

On the opening up of the insurance sector, he claimed that besides leading to increased, qualitative and scientific coverage, it would provide indirect employment to 20 lakh educated youth.

Vikhe-Patil said that with competition, the nationalised insurance companies should restructure themselves to meet the challenges from new private sector entrants.

On the Centre's move to de-control sugar, Vikhe-Patil, who himself is a cooperative baron from Maharashtra, said thatsuch a step was necessary, especially when various other sectors have been made open in the liberalisation process. He added that the de-control should be done in a phased manner during next the two to three years. The cooperative sector should be prepared to face competition during the process of opening up of the economy, Vikhe-Patil said.

The practice of levy exists nowhere else in the world, and it must be scrapped, he said. The minister emphasised that the sugar industry, both in the cooperative and private sectors, should be made to stand on its own.Vikhe-Patil said that the Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha has convened a pre-budget meeting with the players in the cooperative sector to know their views. A meeting is likely to take place in the next 10 days.

He said that the currency with the public showed a higher growth of 12.4 per cent during March 31 to November 19, 1999, against 9.2 per cent in the corresponding year. Demand deposits with banks declined by 4.9 per cent, compared with acontraction of 3.1 per cent during the corresponding period of the last financial year.

Time deposits with banks have gone up by 11.6 per cent, against a rise of 15.2 per cent in the corresponding period last year.