Delegates, coming from different cooperative banks across the country to attend the 46th Annual General Meeting of NAFCUB on Wednesday, raised many issues pertaining to the cooperative sector.
The issues included raising the limit of real estate exposure, constituting an expert team for the recovery of loans, PMC Bank’s fall out resulting in dragging the cooperative bank into losses and many others.
Addressing the participants, Laxmi Naryanan, Director, Janata Cooperative Bank said, “Due to the PMC Bank episode, our bank is facing losses as we had made an investment of Rs 42 crore in this bank. Though it has been merged with Unity Small finance bank, we are yet to get the money back. We seek the help of the Nafcub management in getting back the money”.
“Our bank business is more than Rs 1400 crore but still our bank is facing a total loss of Rs 16 crore. We have to make provisions from the profits on accounts of investment made in the PMC Bank. RBI allows banks to make provisions for five years but it should be extended to 10 years, so that we can make the provision of Rs 4 crore every year on the investment made in the PMC bank”, he added.
Jijau Commercial Cooperative Bank Chairman Avinash Kothale demanded that it should be made mandatory for all including Sarpanches, MLAs, MPs to have only a ten-year term, as the BR Amendment Act barred the elected directors of UCBs from remaining on the board for more than eight years.
Jamia Cooperative Bank Chairman MQH Beg demanded that the Reserve Bank of India should also extend the Real Estate exposure for cooperative banks. States face different problems in running cooperative banks and they should be addressed separately instead of issuing the common guidelines.
Pune People’s Cooperative Bank Chairman Subhash Mohite wanted cooperative banks to close for one day as a protest if RBI is not listening to our problems. RBI officials don’t know about banking and they should learn.
Kaijs Bank CEO Sanjay Shirgave demanded that individual women beneficiaries exceeding Rs 1 lakh need to be considered as a priority section category. The maximum unsecured advance limit for cooperative banks is permitted up to Rs 5 lakh. There is a need to increase this limit.
Chittor Urban Cooperative Bank Chairman called for the formation of an expert team by the National Federation or State federation for recovery of NPA. The branding, staff and board training should be done by NAFCUB.
Speaking on the occasion of 64th AGM of NAFCUB, Shekhar Kibe, Director of Indore Paraspar Sahakari Bank said that the PMC bank institutional depositors has to provide 20? per year against their deposits, which is wrong because scheme was drafted by RBI itself.
Kerala delegate felt that the time given to delegates for voicing their concerns is not enough.
While moving a vote of thanks, NAFCUB Vice President Vidyadhar Anaskar raised a voice for making a separate regulator for cooperative banks on the lines of the Reserve Bank of India.
