Cooperators hail Fin Ministry’s decision

Cooperators connected with cooperative banks across the country have hailed the govt decision to offer a fresh chance to exchange high currencies notes. While BJP cooperators congratulated the govt outright, those opposed to the govt such as Congress , NCP and even Shiv Sena say the govt had to buckle before their pressure.

It bears recall that the Finance Ministry finally on Tuesday allowed the exchange facility of old notes for another month till July 20.

Nafscob President and a confirmed BJP man Dileepbhai Sanghanai was full of praise “On behalf of the apex body of District Cooperative Banks and State Cooperative Banks NAFSCOB, I thank the govt for this decision. This will check the loss of interest for co-op banks on one hand and fill their empty coffer with fund on the other.

He further said DCCBs have suffered interest loss on these currencies affecting their balance sheet. So, I request the RBI to make provision for paying interest on such SBN notes for the period held in the bank, he added.

M.L.Sukhdev Chairman of the apex body of Maharashtra State Cooperative Banks said “There are about 31 District Central Cooperative Banks in the state which are having more than 2,770 crore in old currency. I welcomed the decision which is commendable and empowering rural cooperative banks of the state as well as the farmers mostly connected with these banks only.

“On several occasion in my speech I have mentioned the issue of old currency note which is badly affecting the structure of the coop banking sector and affecting the balance sheet simultaneously”, Sukhdev said.

Dehradun District Cooperative Bank Chairman Dr K S Rana informed that about 6 crore is pending with his bank in old currency. He was happy to have got a golden chance to deposit such specified notes in any office of RBI within a period of 30 days.

He said verification was done between January and May this year and it was found that the accounts of these banks complied with the KYC norms.

Subash Behar Chairman of Udhamsingh Nagar District Cooperative Bank was, however still unhappy and said nothing could be done now as at the time of demonetization bank’s customer-base was affected leading to a skewed balance sheet last fiscal.