In a major relief for all the co-operative organizations, in the country, the government of India has extended the date for completion of Audit and submission of Accounts till 31st December 2020.
Earlier the date was extended till 30th Sept 20 but several representatives of the co-op sector felt that it was not enough and demanded the date to be extended till 31 December.
Singed by Joint Secretary Amit Agrawal of the Ministry of Finance a notification dated 29th September, just a day prior to lapse of the last date reads “In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 53 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (10 of 1949), the Central Government, on the recommendation of the Reserve Bank of India, hereby declare that the provisions of section 31 read with clause (t) of section 56 of the said Act shall not apply to primary co-operative banks till 31″ December, 2020.”
Several representatives including Sahakar Bharti leader and a RBI Board Director Satish Marathe and Chief Executive Sayali Bhoir Maharashtra Urban Cooperative Banks’ Federations, among others had asked the government and RBI to extend the date.
The matter has been resolved satisfactorily and Sahakar Bharati thanks both the RBI & GOI for their timely action, said Marathe reacting to the development. The Maharashtra chapter of UCBs which is headed by Vidyadhar Anaskar also thanked the RBI for its timely move.
Co-operators say that due to pandemic & long and sudden Lockdowns in various States, Audit is still underway in many cooperatives including Banks. State Govts have extended timelines for holding AGMs & Elections.
It is common knowledge that the unprecedented situation caused by COVID-19, has disrupted most of the banking activities with accounting and auditing being no exception. Mandatory lockdown measures were imposed by the governments to control the spread of the virus, with everyone having to work with reduced staff or to work from home where possible.
Though banks fall under essential activities as per Government’s Notification, and continued to provide customer services with available staff, are facing difficulties in completing audit activities and conducting AGMs on time.
So far as Auditors are concerned, due to restrictions in place for nearly four months due to pandemic, even they could no longer travel to banks premises to conduct audit, nor even to their own offices and are trying their level best to complete the audit procedures through remote access.
Due to inadequate staff even they are facing practical problems in physical verification of bills, vouchers, KYC documents, loan files etc. and in completing the audit within stipulated time. As a result, the audit processes in many banks have not yet been completed.