NSEL defaults again; settles only Rs 128 cr of Rs 5,500 cr outstanding to investors

National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) defaulted for the fourth consecutive week as it could pay only Rs 7.77 crore on Tuesday to investors out of scheduled Rs 174.72 crore.

Crisis-ridden NSEL had defaulted in payments on three previous occasions as well.

“The commodities which are lying in warehouses under the control of NSEL are being auctioned after calling for sealed bids. So far, Rs 7.77 crore has been realised and pay-out is being made of these proceeds on Sept 10, 2013. Auction of other stocks are in process,” NSEL said in a statement.

With today’s pay-out, NSEL has been able to settle only Rs 128 crore out of Rs 5,500 crore outstanding to the 13,000 investors. The exchange had availed a bridge loan of Rs 177.23 crore from its promoter Financial Technologies (FTIL) to make payments on priority basis to small investors.

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NSEL was engulfed in a crisis when it stopped trading on all contracts on July 31 following government directives. It raised concerns about the possible default of Rs 5,500 crore to investors.

Later, NSEL announced a seven-month plan to settle the dues to investors.

NSEL said it is actively pursuing recovery of outstanding dues from the members with pay-in obligation.

“This includes initiation of civil and criminal proceedings against defaulting members besides taking actions under the Rules and Bye-laws of the Exchange. So far, 19 members have been declared defaulters and legal proceedings have commenced under the Rules and Bye-laws,” NSEL said.

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While 13 defaulters out of the 19 have met the exchange officials during the last two weeks, six are yet to meet the officials, NSEL said.

Legal notices against 14 defaulters have been issued under Section 138 of Negotiable Instruments (NI) Act for bouncing of cheques for settlement.

“So far, 5 defaulters have minuted their commitment to provide their properties as collateral for disposing of the same. The outstanding liability of these 5 defaulters stands at Rs 1,328.48 and the collateral offered is Rs 1,458 crore as per the defaulters, however, it is subject to due diligence and valuation,” NSEL said. .

NSEL added that Chartered Accountant firm Sharp and Tannan Associates, have confirmed that payouts have been made by NSEL to the bank accounts of the defaulting members.

“The liability is confirmed by the CA firm at Rs 5,574.25 crore as on August 12, 2013. Sharp and Tannan have also conducted physical audit of gold, silver, platinum and base metals in respect of e-series contracts and have found the physical to be in order with the outstanding e-series units,” the statement added.

NSEL has appointed Grant Thornton as forensic auditors and, additionally, internal investigation has also been initiated against the management team of the exchange.

The exchange has also appointed SGS to assay the quantity and quality of goods lying in various warehouses of the defaulters.

According to the audit done by the agency, significant stock shortage has been found in the nine warehouses relating to 7 defaulters, however in 29 warehouses relating to 11 defaulters, the SGS audit team was not allowed inside the premises, it added.

PTI