Anup pur(Madhya  Pradesh)

In the central cooperative bank of Anup Pur in MP,  a scam  to the tune of 1.10 crores have come to light thereby shaking the entire cooperative structure of the town.Administration has initiated the proceeding to bring the culprits to book but the process does not look to be transparent and honest.About 110 persons have been sent notices  in which many are not even alive today.In the audit of the cooperative bank  it was found out that about 110 accused have siphoned off 1 crore and ten lakh. The district administration has sent them notice to refund the money. Some of those who have deposited the money say that the there is  no account of them in the bank. One Shilendra Mishra has received the notice who is already dead five years ago. The notice talks of acquirng land and properties in case money is not returned.

The entire episode is conneted to public distribution system. Accused got grains with the help of bank and sold them without returning the money to bank. It is not so that cooperative bank was not aware of it but the bank kept quite . It was the during  audit that skeltons began  to fell from the cupboard.Obviously some persons of the  cooperative bank are in hand in glove with the accused.

G.H. Amin, President, NCUI meets Union Finance Minister for Income Tax Exemption for Cooperatives.A delegation of senior cooperative leaders alongwith the President, NCUI Shri G.H. Amin, called on the Hon’ble Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee to apprise him about the difficulties being faced by the cooperatives of the country due to withdrawal of the exemption income tax under section 80P(P)(4) on 14th February, 2010. The President, NCUI urged the Hon’ble Minister for an early restoration of the exemption to the cooperatives for payment of income tax by deleting section 80(P)(4) which was introduced in the income tax act in the year 2006. He said that the govt. should review and restore the exemption for the cooperatives. This will give a major incentive to the sector to plug back a substantial portion of their surplus in the form of reserve that would strengthen their capital base to serve the poorer section of the society. He further said that the cooperative movement in India with about 6 lakhs cooperative society widely spread from villages to national level with incredible membership of 230 million with immensely benefit with the withdrawal of income tax to cooperatives. Shri Amin, further said that the avenue of raising capital for the cooperatives are limited as share capital from members can’t be taped beyond a level. The only other way of augmentation of fund by the cooperative is retained earning. In the situation that imposition of tax for cooperatives weakens their efforts to promote the well being of the members and the farming community and other weaker section of the society.

The President, NCUI also demanded the need for strengthening the cooperative education and training support from the Govt. of India to increase the grant-in-aid from Rs. 25 crore per annum to Rs. 50 crores for the year remaining two years of the 11th Five Year Plan i.e. 2010-2011, 2011-12 and also urged the govt. to continue grant-in-aid for the cooperative and training programme in the 12th Plan period so that professionalisation and human resource development in the cooperative sector do not receive any set back. President, NCUI in the meeting with the Hon’ble Finance Minister also said that NCUI has developed a country wide network of 20 Institute of Cooperative Management, 109 Junior Cooperative Training Centre (JCTs) one National Institute namely Vaikunth Mehtra National Institute for the Cooperative Management (VAMNICOM) and an advance National Centre for Cooperative Education (NCCE) for imparting training and education for entire cooperative set-up. Shri Amin, said that the budgetary support from the govt. is declining for the cooperative education and training over the years and it is difficult to provide leadership and professional skills to 6 lakhs cooperative 25 crores members in the country without sufficient financial support.

Co-operative banking in Kerala, sitting on a deposit kitty of Rs 55,000 crore, has put up a stiff resistance to the Income-Tax Department’s directive to furnish details of deposits as per provisions of the Income Tax Act, amidst strong indications that the co-operative sector, managed by powerful politicians, has become a safe haven for hoarding unaccounted money. As per Section 133(6) of the Income Tax Act, the Income-Tax Department is free to ask for names and addresses of the depositors who hold deposits above a particular sum in a banking institution. The sum referred to here is Rs 1 lakh or above. No banking firm, commercial or co-operative, enjoys immunity from furnishing such information. The objective of the Act is to tackle tax evasion and detect black money stashed in the banking sector. Although the private and public sector banks in Kerala generally comply with Section 133(6), the co-operative banks, mainly managed by politicians from the CPM and Congress, always opposed it. However, sensing the huge fund flow to the co-operative sector to enjoy insulation from banking and tax norms, the I-T Department last year targeted the co-operative sector.