The cooperative banks can accept demonetized currency notes from their members as deposits but are not authorized to issue new currency notes said chairmen and CEO of these banks to this correspondent.
NAFSCOB Chairman Dileepbhai Sanghani said “Because of insufficient amount of new currency notes, account holders are facing problems. I have written letter to Union Finance Minister Arun Jatiley and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh saying rabi Season is about to start and the Govt. of India should allow farmers of the country to buy seeds and fertilizers with old currency notes.”
Laxmi Das Chairman, Kangra Cooperative bank said to this correspondent on phone “In the wake of demonetization of higher currencies, we are facing problems. All cooperative banks are unable to meet the needs of their customers.”
Our deposits are increasing but our currency chest bank is not ready to take these deposits. While the whole cooperative banking sector is suffering due to demonitization of high currencies, non issuable notes are circulating, said Rajeev Gupta CEO of Indraprastha Sehkari Bank.
Udham Singh Nagar District Cooperative bank chairman Subash Behar said “We are facing major problem in recovery of loans. Elaborating on the point, he said we are giving loans to the farmers through PACS societies where about Rs 350 crore are disbursed in the form of loans to farmers. The RBI should allow PACCS societies to take old currency, notes, he added.
Talking to this correspondent Dehradun District Cooperative Bank Chairman Dr K S Rana said “demonetization scheme has been initiated in a hurry. Banks are not getting sufficient currency notes. Perhaps the printing of new currency notes is still not adequate.”
Another big problem facing the state is that there is no currency chest for the cooperative banks, this has forced consumers to make do with small amounts. Not only that, farmers are not able to deposit their money in cooperative banks, said Rana.
These co-op organizations mostly keep their deposits with commercial banks which treat each credit co-op as an individual which can withdraw Rs 10,000 per day and Rs 20,000 per week following the RBI guidelines. Some of the credit co-ops especially the multi state credit co-op societies among them are entities servicing sometimes a twenty thousand strong clientele.