In the regular Union Budget for the financial year 2024-25 presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, the Central Government has made a budgetary provision of Rs 1183.39 crore for the Union Ministry of Cooperation, with special focus on strengthening Cooperative Sugar Mills (CSMs).
A provision of Rs 500 crore for Grant-in-aid to National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) for the same purpose has also been made in the budget.
A provision of Rs 500 crore has been made for computerization of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies. This scheme aims at computerization of 67,000 (approx) functional PACS leading to increase in efficiency, profitability, transparency and accountability in the working of PACS
A provision of Rs 88.96 crore made for the Centrally Sponsored projects for strengthening Cooperatives through IT Interventions has two components.
It included the Computerization of Agricultural Rural Development Banks (ARDB) Project and the Computerization of the Offices of Registrar of Co-operative Societies (RCS) of States/UTs. The objective is to increase efficiency, profitability, transparency and accountability of ARDBs and RCS.
In the Union Budget, a provision of Rs 39.40 crore has been made for expenditure on the Secretariat of the Ministry of Cooperation including the office of Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies, office of Cooperative Election Authority and office of Ombudsman.
Whereas, a new scheme Prosperity Through Cooperatives is being formulated for overall growth and development of the Cooperative Sector and a token allocation of Rs 1 Lakh has been kept in the year 2024-25.
The scheme aims at introduction of Cooperative Education as a course curriculum and also as independent degree/diploma courses in Schools and Universities. The scheme is being formulated for implementation for the year 2024-25. Accordingly, a token money of Rs 1 Lakh has been kept.
For the scheme aimed at revamping, strengthening existing Cooperative Training structure in the country and modernizing the training methods, Rs 1 lakh has been kept for Year 2024-25.
The objective is to make participants such as PACS, Dairy and Fisheries societies, DCCBs, SCBs, state nodal Officers, officials of State and National cooperative Federations acquainted with the Ministry’s various new schemes for their effective implementation.
Interestingly, in the 2023-24 budget, a provision of Rs 30 crore and Rs 25 crore was made for Cooperative Education and Cooperative Training in 2023-24 respectively but no such provision has been made in the 2024-25 budget, only a token money of Rs 1 lakh has been kept for Cooperative Education and Training.
Cooperators said that the reason for not making a special provision for cooperative education and training is that MSCSs are already contributing 1 percent of their profits to the Co-op Education Fund (formerly controlled by NCUI) managed by the Union Ministry of Cooperation. Therefore, there is no need for separate allocation.