Troubled incessantly by the Income Tax dept officials, several cooperators connected to Souharda cooperative societies rushed to Delhi to meet BJP top guns and seek relief. Jyotindra Mehta, NAFCUB President accompanied them in these consultations.
The delegation first met Bhartiya Janata Party National President Amit Shah at the BJP Central office in Delhi last week and submitted a memorandum regarding income tax problems related to the cooperative sector.
Shah is said to have assured them to look into the matter, sources add.
Later, the delegation met Union Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla and Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairman Sushil Chandra to discuss the issues facing Souharda cooperative societies of Karnataka.
The memorandum submitted to the Minister lists points such as not considering cooperatives registered under liberal parallel cooperative act as cooperative societies, not considering membership matter as per state (Karnataka) legislature, Sec 80p of the Income Tax Act, 1961, Section 269ST of the Income Tax Act 1961, Section 269SS & 269T of the Income Tax 1961, Acceptance & Repayment of Deposit in cash and TDS for member deposits.
One of the directors of Karnataka State Souharda Federal Cooperative Gurunath Janthikar wrote “IT problems memorandum submitting to Shri Amit Shah BJP National President at New Delhi. Delegation headed by KSSFCL”.
KSSFCL MD Sharangowda G.Patil was hopeful about the outcomes of the meeting as he said Souharda Co-operatives are confident that there would be no more trouble for them coming from the Income Tax Department.
He also said a positive response received from the minister has buoyed them up. He also hoped the much-needed amendment in CBDT as demanded by them would be done in course of time.
The occasion was also used by Nafcub President Jyotindra Mehta to hand over a list of budget expectations from the govt. Writing about this on Social Media, Jyotindra Mehta said “Budget expectation, Handed over to Union State Minister of Finance Shri Shivprasad Shukla. Memorandum on behalf of NAFCUB and Sahakar Bharati. Expectations of cooperative sector of the country. Obviously old demand for deduction under section 80 P and other tax and banking related issues”, he further added.
Readers would note that according to sub-section 4 of 80 P the IT act does not apply to Credit Cooperatives but despite this income tax officials keep harassing them. They are given notices every now and then.
The delegation which was led by Karnataka State Souharda Federal Cooperative (KSSFCL) Chairman B.H.Krishnareddy, included director Gurunath Janthikar, H.V.Rajiv, Managing Director Sharangowda G.Patil, NAFCUB President Jyotindra Mehta, Laxmi Narayan Gupta and others.
More than 4,456 Souharda cooperatives are the member of Karnataka State Souharda Federal Cooperative. The total deposits of these cooperatives are 14,000 crore and loans of about Rs 11,000 crore.
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