At a function in Ghazipur, Lieutenant Governor said that the government was committed to ensure equitable and inclusive development and strengthening of cooperative movement to fulfill aspirations of every stakeholder associated with agriculture and the rural economy.
Recently, the government informed the Parliament that the country has a rich cooperative heritage and a robust cooperative sector. It said in order to promote the cooperative sector through policy and other interventions, the Government has created the new Ministry of Cooperation to provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement.
Various initiatives such as computerization of PACS on an ERP based common national software has been already started. Also model byelaws have been prepared and circulated for their adoption as per the respective State Cooperatives Act to enable PACS to undertake more than 25 business activities like dairy, fishery, setting up of godowns, LPG, Petrol, Green energy distribution agency, banking correspondents, CSC, etc.
Also preparation of an authentic and updated data repository of cooperatives in the country has been started to facilitate stakeholders in policy making and implementation. Further, a National level committee comprising of experts and stakeholders drawn from all over the Country constituted to formulate the New Cooperation Policy to create an enabling ecosystem to realize the vision of ‘Sahakar-se-Samriddhi’.
Cooperatives have also been permitted to register as ‘buyer’ on GeM, enabling them to procure goods and services from nearly 40 lakh vendors to facilitate economical purchases and greater transparency.
Also Union Budget 2023-24 announced to increase cash withdrawal limit for cooperatives from Rs. 1 Crore to Rs. 3 Crore, per annum, without being subjected to TDS.
Also, a new apex national multi-state cooperative export society is being established under the MSCS Act, 2002 as an umbrella organization to give thrust to exports from the cooperative sector.
The government is stated to have a target to establish two lakh Primary Agricultural Credit Societies in order to make these PACS operational in every panchayat of the country.
Apart from providing credit facilities and other services, cooperatives today are also providing necessary forward and backward linkages and strengthening self help groups.
While various steps undertaken so far seem to be in right earnest, there is a need to strengthen and facilitate ease of doing business for cooperatives in various sectors and deepening its reach to the grassroots.
