Thaindian News

Kolkata, Jan 29 (IANS) Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) will not launch its own mutual funds transaction platform, industry body chairman A.P. Kurian said here Friday.
“For the last two years we were thinking of launching some platform. We have worked on it but now we have found that others have already launched it and that has created the open market. Now we feel that there is no need to launch a separate platform,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on mutual funds organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce.

“We have decided not to launch it now. We have conceptualised and catalysed it and the market has picked it up,” Kurian said.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) was the first to launch its mutual funds transaction platform in association with UTI MF.

Earlier, AMFI had planned to make its platform operational by March this year.

Kurian said the mutual fund industry saw a robust growth till December 2009 against the same period last quarter. The industry almost grew 80 percent.

“But this growth was based on debt funds. On an average, during that period (August-December 2009), around Rs.4,000 crore equity funds were sold but redemption was to the tune of Rs.5,000-Rs.6,000 crore,” he said.

Kurian said AMFI has requested the finance minister to exempt dividend paid to investors by equity schemes of Fund of Funds by removing the disparity between tax treatments of dividend paid by equity schemes of mutual funds.

“In our pre-budget memorandum, we have requested the finance minister to make dividend of equity schemes of Fund of Funds more attractive to investors,” Kurian said.

Fund of Funds are invested in other mutual fund schemes and not directly into actual equity or debt assets.