Sahakar Bharati, an RSS affiliate, is to organise a two-day national-level conference in Delhi next month to discuss the challenges and threats faced by credit cooperatives. Recommendations from the meeting will be placed before the government.
Addressing media on Tuesday, the Sahakar Bharati President, D. N. Thakur, and General Secretary, Uday Joshi, said the conference on December 2-3, would be part of several sectoral discussions to be held until March 31, 2024. Two such conferences have been organised since October, one in Pune on cyber security, and another on fisheries in Mumbai.
Joshi said conferences on sugar, dairy and the weaving/ handloom sectors are also planned. The next conferences would cover the role of women in cooperatives, housing societies, primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS), and urban cooperative banks.
Deposit insurance
To start with, deposit insurance coverage of at least Rs 50,000 should be given to all credit cooperatives, similar to that enjoyed by depositors in public and private sector banks, he said. Though it has been tried in Maharashtra, it had failed without government support.
Credit Cooperatives should come under the Income Tax Act so as to get relief U/S 80P (2) and other provisions. In the spirit of the 97th Constitutional Amendment, State and Central governments should take the initiative to register credit cooperatives at both the Central and State levels.
Joshi said credit cooperatives should be made members of the National Payment Gateway for cashless and digital transactions, and also be entitled to services like CIBIL. He suggested that provisions of the SARFESI Act be implemented for credit cooperatives for speedy and effective recovery of loans. The conference would deliberate on the need to empower credit cooperatives to invest in government securities, Joshi said.
He felt that credit cooperatives should be empowered to participate in schemes such as Mudra loans.