Fourteeen employees have already accepted the VRS offer. Employees opting for VRS will get 45 days pay (basic salary and dearness allowance) for every year completed or the remaining years of service - whichever is less. The board of AFC will meet on December 14 to review the progress of the scheme.For the year ended March 31, 1998, the corporation posted a nominal net profit of Rs 7.47 lakh. The operating loss during the first half of the current year was in the region of Rs 43 lakh. The net loss of the corporation for 1998-99 could be much higher.

AFC proposes to raise its paid-up capital from Rs 10 crore to Rs 25 crore. It has already approached the 37 member banks to get its equity capital increased. The corporation has also approached other agencies tosubscribe to the further issue of shares in order to broadbase the membership.It had earlier been proposed that AFC be made a subsidiary of the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (Nabard). The specific advantages of this agreement would be that AFC would continue to be an autonomous entity but would be assured of a steady flow of work through Nabard.

It was felt that since Nabard was into large-scale lending and refinancing, it was already overburdened with work and some of its work could be passed on to AFC. It was also suggested that the staff of AFC could be fully absorbed by Nabard. This has, however, been hanging fire for a very long time now.

Set up in 1968, the main objective of AFC was to finance agricultural projects and to assist commercial banks to participate extensively in agricultural development. The AFC's primary source of revenue at present is, however, consultancy services.

The AFC management has already taken a number of steps to reduce establishment costs. Among ahost of measures announced, employees have been instructed that leave encashment will not be allowed till further notice. Payment of overtime has temporarily been withdrawn and workmen staff will be allowed compensatory offs for duties performed beyond office hours. However, in the face of all the cost-cutting measures being resorted to, sources at AFC said that the managing director could get his salary revised with effect from January 1, 1996, on a par with the pay of chairmen of public sector banks. This is on the basis of the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations.