ARCIL to take over assets of 12 firms

 The companies were located in states where the local governments had slashed stamp duty rates. These assets will be disposed off within September following which the company will take over assets of another 100 odd companies.

 ARCIL would simultaneously try to rope in banks to increase its equity base which was at Rs 10 crore only, provided entirely by 7 institutions.

 ARCIL has identified around four companies in Maharashtra, six companies in Gujarat and two companies in West Bengal.

 In all these states, the state government had bought down stamp duties from levels as high as 8 per cent to below 3 per cent.

 The asset reconstruction company had earlier planned to take over assets of around Rs 5,000 crore from 50 sticky accounts.

 However, when it surveyed the scenario in states, it discovered that asset transfer in states where stamp duty was around 8 per cent was unviable from the start.

 This led to its revised list. Interestingly. although the number of companies had come down to 12, the asset size has remained the same at Rs 5,000 crore.