Feeling deprived by the Unit Trust of India in the settlement of the US-64 scheme, an investors' forum on Wednesday put before the government three options to pay at least the principal amount invested by them during 1998-99 following the revival of stock markets in the country.

Citing that UTI (now UTI-I) had sold the US-64 units at Rs 15.30 in May 1998 and repurchased the same in May 2001 at Rs 14.25 but gave only Rs 10 per unit from August 2001, UTI Investors' Forum, which is seeking support from the affected parties across the country, said, "Not only the interest is lost but also the principal to the tune of 30 per cent."

• The UTI Crisis

Holding that a common investor was not aware of the "degenerating" condition of UTI during the period, forum secretary general R S Agarwal told PTI that Rs 10 per unit was paid arbitrarily and "UTI should pay at least Rs 14.25 (the rate in May 2001).

He said if it was not possible to pay the amount immediately, bonds should be issued with a longer maturity.

Otherwise, the government could swap the US-64 schemes with the US-2002 scheme (managed by UTI-II or the UTI Mutual Fund) as had been done with the dividends of the scheme.

Highlighting that share markets were blamed for the UTI degeneration, he said: "Now with markets escalating to around 6,000 mark, there is no reason to say that UTI is suffering losses and cannot return investors' money."

"Why UTI is not encashing its holding and paying the investors," he asked. The forum, which had already submitted a memorandum to Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, but had not got any reply, was planning to make the campaign a mass movement, he added.