NSEL defaults for 17th time; pays Rs 9 cr against Rs 174.72 cr

Crisis-ridden bourse National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) on Tuesday paid about Rs 9 crore against the scheduled payment amount of Rs 174.72 crore, defaulting for the 17th straight time. With Tuesday's pay-out, NSEL has so far settled about Rs 253 crore against about Rs 5,600 crore dues to 13,000 investors. NSEL, which is engulfed in a payment crisis, had previously defaulted for 16 times. On its seventh pay-out date and thirteenth pay-out date, the spot commodity bourse was unable to make any payment. "The total amount being disbursed today is around Rs 9 crore," an NSEL spokesperson said. Topworth Steels and Power has made a payment of about Rs 9 crore to the exchange, while 23 of other investors have defaulted, he added. The bourse has sought commodity market regulator Forward Markets Comission's (FMC) approval for disbursement of Rs 11 crore in the escrow account received from defaulting member Mohan India last week. NSEL 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. NSEL, promoted by Jignesh Shah-led FTIL, is facing the problem of settling dues to 148 members after it suspended trade on July 31 following a government order. NSEL's decision to suspend trading followed a Consumer Affairs Ministry directive asking the bourse not to launch any new contracts till further order as it found violations of government norms in trading at NSEL. The bourse had earlier said it plans to settle all the dues in 30 weeks time, by paying Rs 174.72 crore for first 20 weeks followed by Rs 86.02 crore in next 10 weeks.