By Satish Marathe
A. Licences for opening new UCBs have not been issued for almost 2 decades. At the same time, Licenses have been issued by RBI to variety of new Banks. Considering the continental size of the Country, the present number of UCBs is too small and several States and Districts do not have even a single UCB.
B. Committee to prepare Vision Document for Urban Co-Op Banks.
A broad-based Committee of Cooperators & Officials is constituted to prepare a Vision Document and a Roadmap with Landmarks for growth and development of the UCB Sector.
C. Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme –
Under the above Scheme, PSU Banks, Private Sector Banks, Foreign Banks, RRBs and even Small Finance Banks are eligible lending Institutions and they get cover under the Guarantee
Scheme for credit facilities extended without collateral security to Micro & Small Enterprises. All UCBs should also be made eligible under the above Scheme as its area of focus has always been MSMEs.
D. Sukanya Samridhi Account – All Financially Sound and Well Managed UCBs be permitted to open Sukanya Samridhi Account.
E. Considering the vast reach of the UCBs amongst the unorganised sector & micro enterprises, it is necessary that Mudra Bank enlist UCBs as its channel partners for extending Financial Assistance.
F. Sec.80(c)(xxi) of the Income Tax Act 1961- All UCBs be made eligible to accept Term Deposits for a fixed period of not less than 5 years as investments eligible for deduction for the purposes of Sec.80(c) under Clause (xxi) of Sec.80(c) of the Act 2006.
G. The Banking Regulation Act prohibits both Scheduled & Non-Scheduled UCBs from extending Financial Assistance to other Primary CoOp Soc. Hence, the need to amend Banking Regulation Act to permit all UCBs to finance Primary CoOp Societies and FPOs engaged in Agro-Processing activities.