Raghevendra Rao, Chairman, Vishakhapatnam Urban Cooperative Bank is angry on account of the govt discriminating between co-operatives and companies. He said while the Corporate tax was reduced to 25% from 30 no matching reduction was announced for co-ops.
Explaining he said a co-operative earning more than one crore has to give 30 per cent income tax and 1 percent surcharge on it. As if it is not enough, the govt also imposes 2 % of Education cess and further 1 % of Higher Education cess.
Underling the glaring apathy of the govt towards co-operatives, Rao said while taxation for co-ops gone up to 34 percent, it is down to 25% for companies.
Are we being penalized for helping the poor and downtrodden, he wondered.
Rao also blamed Nafcub for not taking any concrete move in this direction. “So far as the govt is concerned we see no move either”, Rao lamented.
If you cannot go the extra mile to help the cooperative movement at least be neutral and offer us a level playing field; bring the taxes down to 25% that compares favorably with that of the corporate sector, he demanded.
On the issue of Umbrella organization for UCBs Raghevendra said ”we have already indicated to the govt by submitting our support in writing.
National Cooperative Development Corporation NCDC has already pledged Rs 200 crore for the proposed Umbrella Organization of urban cooperative banks, informed Jyotindra Mehta in the AGM.
Mehta had said it is useful for both small and large banks. Most of our issues with RBI would vanish if we have an Umbrella bank which would control us as well as be controlled by us, he stated.
Large UCBs can have access to fund through Umbrella organization, and the issues of technology and security of small UCBs could be addressed by collective action, he added.