National Consumer Cooperative Federation (NCCF) Chairman Mr Birendra Singh has blamed crisis of cooperative leadership in the country behind governmental indifference to this vital mode of economics. For your voice to be heard there should unison and there should be unity of purpose among cooperative leaders, Mr Singh said while talking to Indian Cooperative.com in New Delhi.
Readers may recall that apart from the annual budgetary plan even the 12th Five year Approach paper have given a royal miss to the word “cooperative”. There is nothing new in it and it is now for more than 15 years that the word cooperative is missing from all discussions of budget, Birendra Singh said.
Union Finance Minister meets everybody worth name in pre-budget consultations while we keep fighting for exemption from income tax. We have petitioned Sharad Pawarji, our agriculture minister a thousand times on this issue. But would government take us seriously if we do not stand on our feet and pay income tax, he asked. I want cooperatives to be viable and pay tax, Mr Singh asserted.
Talking of NCCF viability he conceded that for last 6 months consumer cooperative has suffered on account of lack of professional staff. ” We have conducted interviews recently and are in process of appointing some professionally trained senior men which would help us achieve our goal, the Chairman added.
We also suffer from lack of clear-cut field of operation and have petitioned government for guidance. We may emerge as nodal agency in the field of medicines shortly. NCCF may also play an important role in Food security plank of the government, he added.