NCP Panel meets; leaders felt co-ops be treated as business enterprises

The first meeting of the newly constituted National Level Committee for drafting the new National Cooperative Policy proved to be brainstorming as co-operators after co-operators felt that co-op should be treated as a business enterprise.

The meeting which was held on Monday at Shivneri Auditorium, Vamnicom, Pune was attended by 40 members out of 47. It was presided over by former union minister Suresh Prabhu.

The meeting was attended by RBI Central Board Director Satish Marathe, Nafcub President Jyotindra Mehta, GCMMF MD R S Sodhi National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories MD Prakash P Naiknavare, Kribhco MD Rajan Chowdhry, Nafcb former CEO D Krishna, Nafscob Chairman Ravinder Rao, professors, among others.

In the meeting, it was decided to form eight theme based sub-committees to make a detailed report to be added in the NCP before drafting the final document. The subcommittee based on different sectors will be formed in a couple days.

“The co-op laws were formulated at a time when India was a British subject. Its more regulatory in nature than growth oriented”, said GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi talking to Indian Cooperative.

The word Registrar itself sounds regulatory; we need to have something like Co-op Business Development Officer, said Sodhi hinting at the need to effect a paradigm shift in thinking. Why can’t we have “Invest Cooperative” on the lines of Invest Gujarat or Maharashtra” he underlined.

Talking to Indian Cooperative Nafscob Chairman K Ravinder Rai said, “It was an introductory and positive meeting. Though the existing National Cooperative Policy is not bad but the implementation is not in the right spirit. I spoke on the rural cooperative bank”, he added.

Sharing the details, Satish Marathe said, “During the meeting the discussion on several issues related to the cooperative sector was held. There are many common issues which need to be looked at before drafting the cooperative policy”.

Addressing the members of the committee, Marathe added that, “State & Union Govts should recognise CoOps as Economic Enterprises. All State & Central CoOp Acts should be consistent with the 97th Constitution Amendment. Role of RCS should be akin to Registrar of Companies”.

The other suggestion includes, “Sectoral Regulators e.g. IRDA, RBI, NHB, etc should regulate the respective CoOps. RCS should be divested of sectoral Regulation. Separate Regulation to be formulated where any Govt or its arm extends Fund or Non-Fund support a CoOp.”

“Cooperative Acts should be amended to empower CoOps to promote SPVs or 100% owned Companies to enable CoOps to access Capital Market and as in developed Countries, a separate National level Deposit Insurance Corporation for all CoOps engaged in Thrift & Credit activity”, Marathe asserted.

The Committee has been asked to submit the final draft within 3 months from the date of its first meeting.

 The Panel has to work out a cooperative policy, which can be uniformly applied to the states. Since cooperation is a state subject, the challenge for formulating a policy acceptable to all is no easy task.

(With input from Ajay Jha)