Addressing the 89th General Council meeting of the NCDC in New Delhi on Monday, Union Minister Amit Shah though lauded its role so far but added that it has yet to scale newer heights. Setting a target of Rs 1 lakh crore business per year, Shah reminded the assembly that the NCDC’s primary goal should not be profits but growth of co-ops in the country.
Organized at the NCDC headquarters in Delhi, the GC meeting was attended by the Cooperation Secretary Gyanesh Kumar, Central Registrar Vijay Kumar, NCDC MD Pankaj Bansal, NCUI President Dileepbhai Sanghani, IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi, GCMMF Chairman Shamalbhai Patel, Nafed Chairman Bijendra Singh, Nafcub President Jyotindra Mehta, Nafscob Chairman K Ravinder Rao, All India Federation of Cooperative Spinning Mills, President, Rajendra Patil, NFCSF MD Prakash P Naiknavare, NAFCARD MD K K Ravindran, among others.
In his address, Shah said that NCDC is playing a crucial role in fulfilling Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Sahakar se Samridhi. NCDC is an implementing agency for various schemes of the Government and dovetails the subsidy component with its loan to benefit cooperative societies. He said that NCDC has disbursed financial assistance of more than Rs.41,000 crore in the Financial Year 2022-23 across the country including rural areas.
Shah noted that NCDC is set to achieve 10 times growth in disbursement of financial assistance in the current financial year from Rs 5,300 crore in 2013-14 and hoped it will be able to achieve the target of Rs 50,000 crore kept for 2023-2024. He added that it is a matter of pride that net NPA of the Corporation is maintained at ‘Zero’ with loan recovery rate being over 99% for 2022-23.
NCDC should set a target of achieving Rs.1 lakh crore yearly disbursement in next 3 years along with targets for every quarter. The Minister desired that NCDC should explore avenues for borrowing at lower rates and lend to the cooperative sector keeping the interest rate low. NCDC’s objective must not only be to make profit but to achieve overall development of the cooperative sector.
Shah lauded the role of the NCDC and said that from agricultural marketing and inputs to processing, storage and cold chain, the ambit of NCDC has widened to include areas in keeping with the needs of society and boost income of youth in the country.
He said there are more than 8.00 lakh cooperatives in the country with 29 crores farmers as their members. Since its inception in 1963 NCDC has provided cumulatively financial assistance of Rs.2,78,378 crore to cooperatives including agricultural and horticulture cooperative societies.
Shah also listed the 54 initiatives taken in the last 27 months to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country and increase cooperatives’ share in GDP. These initiatives have special focus on strengthening Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS). The initiatives aimed at the ease of doing business include computerization of PACS, model byelaws, widening the functioning of PACS to undertake more than 30 business activities like dairy, setting up of godowns, LPG/Petrol/Green energy distribution agency, banking correspondents, PACS can provide more than 300 services as Common Service Centres (CSC) and preparation of an updated data repository of cooperatives.
He added that a National Cooperative Database has been developed with the assistance of State Governments, which is having comprehensive, authentic and updated data of more than 8.00 lakh cooperative societies.
NCDC MD Pankaj Bansal and his team welcomed the Minister Amit Shah on his arrival. Despite his busy schedule, Shah spent around two hours at the NCDC headquarters, underlining his commitment towards the cooperative movement, quipped a participant.
Talking to the Indian Cooperative NCUI President Dileepbhai Sanghani said, “The meeting was very fruitful and concluded on a positive note. In his speech, Shah re-counted the initiatives launched by the Union Ministry of Cooperation and said, 36 lakh women in the country conduct a milk business worth 60,000 crore rupees through Amul, and not a single woman has invested more than Rs. 100 as capital.
On this occasion, Bansal read the agenda and informed the gathering that during the FY 2022-23, the NCDC disbursed Rs 41,031.39 crore in different sectors including Agriculture Processing, Weaker Sections, Computerization of Cooperatives, Service, Credit and Youth cooperatives and others. It is the highest disbursement in the history of NCDC. Besides, NCDC earned a handsome net profit of Rs 527.34 crore in the 2022-23 financial year.
