New Delhi, June 29
As many as 63,000 functional PACS will be computerised over the next five years. The government on Wednesday approved Rs 2,516 crore for computerisation of functional 63,000 Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) aimed at promoting financial inclusion.
The decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The computerisation programme is aimed at increasing efficiency of PACS, bringing transparency and accountability in their operations, facilitating these societies to diversify business and undertake multiple activities and services”.
Addressing media Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur said this project proposes computerisation of about 63,000 functional PACS over a period of five years with a total budget outlay of Rs 2,516 crore, with the Centre’s share of Rs 1,528 crore.
The PACS constitute the lowest tier of the three-tier short-term cooperative credit (STCC) comprising approximately 13 crore farmers as members, accounting for 41 per cent (3.01 crore farmers) of KCC loans given by all entities. Eventually, the government aims to increase the number to three lakh, sources said.
As many as 95 per cent of these KCC loans (2.95 crore farmers) through PACS are given to small and marginal farmers. The other two tiers— State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) and District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) have already been automated by the NABARD and brought on Common Banking Software (CBS).
However, the majority of PACS have so far been not computerised and still functioning manually resulting in inefficiency and trust deficit. In some of the states, stand-alone and partial computerisation of PACS has been done, officialssaid.
“There is no uniformity in the software being used by them and they are not interconnected with the DCCBs and StCBs. Under the guidance of Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, it has been proposed to computerize all the PACS throughout the Country and bring them on a common platform at National level and have a Common Accounting System (CAS) for their day to day business,” they said.
The project will help in improving the outreach of the PACS as outlets for banking activities as well as non-Banking activities apart from improving digitalisation in rural areas, they added.
The project comprises development of cloud based common software with cyber security and data storage, providing hardware support to the PACS, digitisation of existing records including maintenance support and training. This software will be in vernacular language having flexibility of customisation as per the needs ofstates.
