National Policy needed to define roles of Co-op Fin Institutions: Marathe

After detailed deliberations, at the end of the National Conclave on the occasion of the launch of Cooperative Development Forum, it was unanimously decided to that a National Policy be formulated to define the Roles of Co-operative Financial Institutions, particularly, PACs, DCCBs & STCBs to achieve rapid, equitable and sustainable growth of the Rural & Agricultural Sectors to achieve.

Talking on the issue Satish Maratha, senior co-operator said the aim is to Double Farmers’ Income, Make Bharat Atmanirbhar and Take Indian Economy to Five Trillion Dollar level

Marathe said it was further decided to request GOI to constitute a broad-based Committee of Experts and Representatives of GOI, State Govts, RBI, Nabard, PACs, DCCBs, State Co-op Banks and Co-operators.

The Conclave was held on the background of the ongoing raging debate to do away with the middle structure of the 3 Tier viz DCCBs. Despite surge in Covid cases, Co-perators and Representatives of DCCBs from States of Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Telangana participated in the National Conclave.

Considering the need to substantially increase Capital Investments in the Rural & Agricultural Sectors and noting that the DCCBs constituted the very ‘ Heart ‘ of the 3 Tier structure, it was decided to Appeal to Central & State Govts, RBI & Nabard not to entertain any proposal for merger of DCCBs with State Co-op Banks till a National Policy is formulated for Co-operative Financial Institutions.

National Conclave also took stock of the fact that in India there are 33 State Co-op Banks, 363 Dist Co-op Bank and about 95238 PACs.  State Co-op Banks’ Deposits & Advs grew by 10% & 13%, CD Ratio 110%, CRAR> 9% for 31 Banks, GNPAs 4.32% in the current fiscal.

While in case of DCCBs, Deposits & Advs grew by 8%, CRAR > 9% for 333 Banks, GNPAs 11.85%, for PACs which cover 6.93 lakh villages and has Membership of 13.05 crores. Their Deposits stand at Rs 1.19 crores, Adv at Rs 1.69 crores and overall about 84243 PACs have registered Profit.

According to Marathe the issues before them are — Need New Bus Model, Technology platform needs to be strengthened, Rationalization of Branch Network  and Emphasis on Training/Re Training of and  DCCBs need to be empowered to raise Capital.