• But still, do you think you can manage?

Initially, for the first two to three years, we might incur some losses. But if we see the schemes per say — today it covers government services, tomorrow it will cover private citizens and the size could be tremendous later. The whole investment pattern will be a unique investment pattern and it will not be on lines of mutual funds. The corpus will be large along with large monthly inflows. That will help. Also, there will be a cost of your infrastructure and your input to it.

• A lot has been talked about the schemes with no entry load. What is your view on the same?

We have a neutral stand. It is good for investors but the distributors play an important role in the expansion of mutual fund industry and customer education. For them, if the revenue stream goes away, they will sell insurance or other products where revenue exists. It will not be good for the industry, especially at a time when the industry is eyeing smaller towns for expansion.

• You were planning to launch your overseas fund but it has not come out yet.

We are not very clear with the tax treatment till now. Other players have gone out without waiting for the tax treatment. We are not sure whether the foreign equity will be treated at par with the Indian equity for tax purposes and so we are trying to get a clarification. We are also working on new schemes with our JV partner SGAM. These are the reasons why it is caught up and is delayed.

... contd.