Cooperators continue to pour adulation to the Prime Ministerial nominee Narendra Modi as the day of his swearing-in is drawing close. Cooperative Development Director at IFFCO Dr G N Saxena sent a text massage to Indian Cooperative in which he first complimented Mr Modi along with a wish-list of the cooperative sector.
Dr Saxena wrote” At the outset, our heartiest congratulations to Sh. Narendra Modi ji for winning the hearts of Indian masses! Cooperatives have played an important role in Indian economy but still they do not enjoy any status in the Indian economy.
Therefore, the “cooperation” needs recognition as the third arm of the economy and large cooperatives should also be invited for active dialogue along with IIC, FICCI etc. The cooperatives should be given the same level playing field as that of private sectors.”
Pointing out the continuing step-motherly treatment of the cooperatives on the issue of foreign earning Dr Saxena said “if a Private sector entity brings dividend on their investments from other countries, they pay 15% ITax where as cooperatives had to pay 30%.”
This anomaly had been voiced by the IFFCO Managing Director Mr U S Awasthi also in the past but to no avail. As Modi is generating optimism all around it is but natural for cooperative sector to expect a correction in the course, commented an observer.
There has also been an old demand of IFFCO MD whose time may have come with the advent of Narendra Modi as he is being billed as the messiah of the cooperative.
Earlier, enumerating the weaknesses of the cooperative movement in the country, Awasthi had called for setting up of a cooperative exchange on the lines of SEBI. Private sector has its exchange, Public sector has the government funding but cooperative sector has none. If a cooperative entity is beset by crisis of shortage of capital it has nowhere to go, he added.
There are several cooperatives including some high-profile giants such as NAFED or MSCB which are ailing but no viable solutions are in sight. There is need for short-term infusion of fund and long-term business planning for them. And a cooperative SEBI is the answer, said an expert.
Many of the coops which were started after Independence, aimed at improving the rural lot
came out of the political-economic ideology of socialist pattern of society. This was a period of scarcity and the then markets were far from perfect. Today, the economic scenerio is totally different. Most of the ‘sellers market’ have now become’buyers’ market’; the process of globalization and liberalization has ensured toughest competition for products and services even in rural markets.
Every coop organization, particularly at the national level must examine ‘what business they are in’ and whether the business models they have been used to have any takers now.
Nafed, NCCF, and the fertilizer giants in the coop sector must ponder how to change their overall functioning to the realities of the today’s markets. Economic theory suggests that it is only by encouraging competion, consumers and the communities will be benefited; by shying away from competition and trying to take shelter under Governmental
patronage must be removed from the mindset of the cooperators, if the coop movement of this country has to succeed.