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The top six investors in the beleaguered National Spot Exchange platform owe about Rs 3,925 crore or 70 per cent of the total outstanding of Rs 5,599 crore.
These companies have goods worth Rs 4,155 crore at the exchange accredited warehouses in Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh. However, there are concerns over realising the same value if the exchange goes for auctioning the produce after the sellers are declared defaulters.
The lesser known companies, which have outstanding amounts in the exchange that suspended trading early this month, include Mohan India Group (outstanding Rs 952 crore), NK Proteins (Rs 930 crore), PD Agroprocess (Rs 617 crore), ARK Imports (Rs 730 crore), Yathuri Associates (Rs 460 crore) and Juggernaut Projects (Rs 236 crore).
Speaking to Business Line , Ramesh Abhishek, Chairman, Forward Markets Commission, said it was entirely the responsibility of the exchange to safe keep and realise the worth of the goods in case of any default by the sellers.
The Government has directed NSEL to do all the settlement under the supervision of FMC and any order or direction issued by it in this regard shall be binding upon the NSEL. FMC has also been given power to take action against any intermediary, investor or warehouse in the NSEL warehouse settlement process.
Interestingly, ARK Imports has raw wool worth Rs 768 crore lying at a warehouse in Punjab. Juggernaut Projects has steel bars of Rs 260 crore, while Mohan India Group and Yathuri Associates have sugar worth Rs 1,093 crore and Rs 488 crore at the warehouse in Delhi and Haryana. NK Proteins has castor seed and cottonwash oil of Rs 936 crore at the warehouse in Gujarat. PD Agroprocessor has paddy of Rs 610 crore in Haryana.
Except for the exchange no Government authority or independent panel has ensured that the listed goods are stored at the warehouse.
Earlier speaking to the media, Jignesh Shah, Chairman, Financial Technologies and director of NSEL, said the financial settlement adopted by the exchange has eliminated the price and quality risks involved in the normal process.
“It is the best possible solution we could arrive at. It is now up to the investors to pay up and get their goods back,” said Shah on Monday.
Meanwhile, the exchange has accepted to facilitate physical delivery of metals held by investors in demat form. Investors are also given an option to still hold their stock in demat form at NSDL and CDSL. E-series contributed an average volume of about Rs 100 crore on NSEL platform in the last few months.
>suresh.iyengar@thehindu.co.in
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