Out of the total sales, 27 per cent was mobilised by the fund's flagship scheme Unit Scheme 1964 (US-64).

While the total repurchases and redemptions under all schemes were down by 22 per cent at Rs 12,673 crore, with US-64 aiding mainly to this. US-64 repurchases were lower by 71 per cent to Rs 2,258 crore during the year.The UTI annual report for 1999-2000 said that all the schemes taken together had net profit of Rs 8,436 crore on total income of Rs 14,150 crore, mainly due to emphasis on the acquisition of high rated corporate debt instruments.

However, the number of applications received for subscription of units of UTI from investors were lower at 15 lakh compared to 18 lakh last year mainly due to launch of only eight new scheme this year as against 14 launched last year.

A detailed look at the total fund deployment of Rs 75,159 crore shows that Rs 41,814 crore (55.7 per cent) was deployed in equity and preference shares, Rs 23,364 crore (31 per cent) in debentures and bonds, Rs 7,426 crore (10 per cent) in government securities and money market instruments with the rest in term of loans and deposits.

The report stated that the fund is a stakeholder in approximately 1,900 companies in the country. It further said that non-performing assets (NPAs) have also been declining over the year and have come down to 2.97 per cent in 1999-2000 from 3.87 per cent in 1998-99 and 5.68 per cent in 1997-98. It said NPAs though marginal, compared to UTI's huge portfolios, are mainly the result of syndicated term loans it disbursed to them in this form and not as non-convertible debentures. In order to preserve the asset quality and further reduce the non-performing assets and monitor them on a proactive basis, post investment actions necessary for safeguarding the investments made by the trust have been taken aggressively.

"A Special recovery group is active in the corporate work-out programme to bring about a turnaround of companies, which have potential for it or to reduce NPAs through one-time settlement," it said.