Amidst the ongoing furore over the government's decision to slash fees of IIMs by about 80 per cent, IIM-Ahmedabad sources on Sunday said the institute has received no grant from the government this fiscal.

In 2002-03, the government had funded 30 per cent of its total expenditure. IIM sources confirmed that the institute has received no money so far from the government in 2003-04 and has been managing its finances from its internal resources.

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"The institute already provides 50 per cent subsidy to each student. To finance this subsidy, the faculty is involved in management development programmes and providing consultancy to various organisations. Besides, IIM-A has a corpus, interest on which is also utilised for funding the institute's financial needs," the sources told PTI.

IIM-A was set up jointly by the central and state governments besides some corporate houses and the Board of Governors of this institute comprises of representatives from each of these sections of the society, they said adding it was nevertheless an autonomous body. As per the charter of the Board, it will be the Board that will decide on student fees and not the government.

Among members of the Board of this prestigious institute are Infosys chairman N R Narayana Murthy, HLL chairman M S Banga, ICICI chief K V Kamath, Reliance Industries vice chairman Anil Ambani, A V Birla Group's Kumaramangalam Birla and HDFC chief Deepak Parekh.

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