By Manoj Kushwaha
Readers can recall that RBI , the watchdog of banks on average penalizes a dozen Urban Cooperative banks per month on the issue of flouting of apex Banks’ norms. There are also frequent cases of cheating with depositors and banks going bust.
Gujarat Mercantile Bank or Beed Central Cooperative bank or Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank are still fresh in our memories.Earlier Pen Cooperative Bank hogged media headlines for quite some time duping the helpless depositors of their hard-earned savings.
In a free-wheeling chat with Indiancooperative.com Subhash Gupta Chief Executive of national federation of urban cooperative banks and credit expressed anguish at frequent imposition of penalities of Urban Cooperative Banks.
He told that nafscub takes the RBI’s imposition of a penalty on the cooperative banks seriously.
Nafscub is the apex body of Urban Cooperative Banks which is headed by H K Patil. Subhas Gupta is the Chief Executive of the Federation. G Krishna who occupied this position for a long time retired last year but has been retained as Advisor given his vast experience in handling Urban Cooperative Bank issues.
The primary job of nafscub involves coordination between its member banks and government. Caught in a peculiar position between a corporate bank and rural bank, Urban Cooperative banks grapple with host of challenges in the fast moving economic scenario.
The issue of imposition of income tax on cooperatives and cooperative banks is one of them. Provision of Direct Tax Code is another issue UCBs are dismayed with.
The federation intends soon holding a seminar in cooperation with the economic intelligence unit of the RBI to identify the reasons responsible for the penalty as well as streamline the financial reporting.
When asked about the election of nafcub, he made no comments saying the matter is sub judice.
He informs that all possible preparations are underway to make the international year of cooperatives a success.