The AMC is also awaiting the approval from the Reserve Bank of India to launch a money-market mutual fund. ``We will launch the MMMF as soon as we get the nod from the RBI,'' said an AMC official. The minimum investment in the MMMF has been pegged at Rs 25,000 and the fund will have a 15-day lock-in. The AMC has added cheque writing facility, allowed by RBI in its recent credit policy for MMMFs, in the offer document.

Meanwhile, the balanced and debt funds will shortly open for fresh sale and repurchase of units. The minimum investment in the two funds is pegged at Rs 5000each. While the debt fund will invest in debt instruments with a rating of AA and above, the balanced fund will make 60 per cent of the equity investments in scrips constituting the S&P CNX Nifty.

The balanced fund will invest around 55 per cent of assets under management in equities to take advantage of the tax breaks for open-end equity funds given in the budget.

The AMC will charge a 1.5 per cent exit load in the equity fund if redemptions are made within one year of investment. The exit load in the debt fund is 0.2 per cent if money is redeemed in six months.

Despite a rising market and tax breaks to equity funds, the poor collection under the balanced fund can be attributed to the poor performance of equity schemes managed by PNB Mutual Fund. Although the AMC tapped investors at a time when the Sensex breached the 4000-mark, the balanced fund could garner only Rs 2 crore. ``The five equity-linked saving schemes from PNB Mutual Fund have given poor returns with their NAVs either languishing belowpar or just at par value,'' said an analyst. The five ELSS have a combined corpus of Rs 80 crore.