Additional fund not sought for IIMs: Jaswant

FM assures fee cut issue will be sorted out after the elections

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh said the human resources development ministry had not sought additional grants for the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) from the finance ministry.

Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi had earlier said the human resources development ministry would meet any shortfall in funds required by IIMs if they agreed to slash the fees by 80 per cent.

The finance ministry, in the interim Budget, had reduced fund allocation to IIMs by 40 per cent to Rs 30 crore, against Rs 49 crore in 2003-04.

Talking to Business Standard, Singh said, "The fee-cut and autonomy issues are the jurisdiction of the HRD ministry. The finance ministry is not connected with them. But, there has been no discussion between the two ministries for additional funding. As for fund allocations to IIMs, or even increasing funding to the IIMs from its own Budget, the HRD ministry will need to inform the finance ministry. We can sit after the elections," Singh said.

The finance minister, who landed in Ahmedabad this morning for a two-day election campaign tour of Gujarat, said, "There is no need to get anxious over the controversy as things will improve after the elections."

Despite IIMs expanding their operations, non-Plan grants to the institutes have come down around 50 per cent over the last two years.

The paucity of funds has mainly hit the three big IIMs -- at Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kolkata.

This belies the human resources development ministry's assurances that it will meet any shortfall of funds to the IIMs.

Non-Plan grants are the main resources of the IIMs, and are used to finance recurring annual expenditures.

The ministry's squeezing of funds has hit IIM-Bangalore the most. Both IIM-Calcutta and IIM-Ahmedabad have received lesser non-Plan grants since 2000-01.

Moreover, these institutes are still in the dark over the allocations for the current fiscal.