Buldana Urban is a name that evokes respect among people of this part of Maharashtra. And this respect was not earned in a day, reminds its CEO Dr Sukesh Zamwar smarting under the crisis unleashed in the wake of demonetization.
Ranked as the number one among credit cooperatives in the country, Buldana Urban was merely given Rs 50 thousand per week from the banks to service its 365 branches. And to meet the daily needs of approximately 5500 workforce, the CEO Dr Zamwar had to spend sleepless nights for days on end.
“As if it was not enough, Income Tax department came knocking. Taxmen phoned our accounts holders as if all of us were indulging in money laundering”, said a pained Zamwar to Indian Cooperative.
While several of the urban cooperative banks of the area such as Malkapur UCB and others were getting Rs 20 lakh per week from the RBI, we were getting just Rs 50 thousand. Surviving in such a scenario was not easy; and how we did it is the stuff of novel, said Zamwar.
Sources inform Buldana Urban undertook massive efforts to gain access to cash such as through petrol pumps, paying through RTGS to medicine shops for members, paying members’ school fees through online payment and many other tricks not to be found in the book.
“We have come almost unscathed through the crisis”, said Zamwar with a sense of relief. But the business is run on the strength of members’ trust. Peoples’ trust in credit cooperatives would get eroded if the govt paints them all with the same brush. If some credit co-ops are indulging in wrong practices, does it mean you should punish all of us, he asked.
Ironically, Zamwar was recently honored by the Maharashtra Govt for leading the largest multi-state credit cooperative society in the state.
Buldana Urban employs the concept of multi-purpose cooperative in solving everyday municipal problems and boasts a business mix of 1.3 billion USD.
Readers would note earlier credit co-ops including Buldana Urban were targeted by an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) Report that recommended banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes.