The final draft of MSCS Amendment Bill 2022 was introduced in Lok Sabha today (Wednesday) soon after the Zero Hour. The Bill is an improvement over the MSCS Act 2002. For the last 20 years, though co-ops expanded far and wide, the laws governing them sadly remained unchanged. The MSCS Amendment Bill 2022 aims to strengthen co-ops and make it a tool of “Sahakar se Samariddhi”.
The Bill, introduced by Minister of State (MoS) for Cooperation BL Verma, also seeks to strengthen governance, reform the electoral process, improve the monitoring mechanism, and ensure ease of doing business in multi-state co-operative societies.
However, despite NCUI’s strong lobbying, the Cooperative Education Fund has gone to the custody of the Central Government. The amendment on the issue of Cooperative Education Fund reads, “Clause 23.—This clause seeks to amend section 63 of the Act to provide that Co-operative Education Fund be maintained by the Central Government and proceeds be used for Co-operative Education and Training through National Co-operative Union of India and any other agency as determined by the Central Government”.
Non-voting shares can be issued to nominal or associate members for raising funds, according to the Bill. It reads, “This clause seeks to amend section 26 of the Act to provide for non-voting shares to be issued to nominal or associate members for allowing multi-State co-operative societies to raise capital and in case of multi-State co-operative bank, such shares shall be issued in accordance with the instructions issued by the Reserve Bank from time to time”.
Read the entire bill by clicking on the link:
Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022