the goan I network
PANAJI
The co-operative sector is in trouble in Goa. Total non-performing assets (NPA) of the around 381 cooperative banks and societies has crossed over Rs 400 crore this year since 2016.
The Cooperation Minister Govind Gaude has revealed this data to a question which was asked by the Ponda MLA Ravi Naik in the Assembly.
The Execution Cell at Panaji and Margao have been established for dealing with the legal cases related to dispute, misappropriation, mismanagement and fraud in the funds of the societies.
The separate camp courts have also been established at Goa Urban Cooperative Bank, Panaji, Madgaum Urban Cooperative Bank, Margao and VPK Urban Coop Bank, Ponda, to settle the cases.
The Zonal offices are instructed to conduct timely audit of the cooperative societies to keep a check on the financial position of the cooperative societies.
The Registrar of Cooperative Societies is also in the process of appointing adequate number of arbitrators from eligible persons for each of the credit society and banks as per their requirements and also mulling to appoint CEO for each of the credit society to carry out execution proceedings based on request received from institutions on case to case basis.
The government has also issued circulars to conduct supervision of loan accounts.
Many credit cooperative societies have not completed their annual audit for more than five years. Interestingly, the co-operative societies from the Ponda taluka tops the list for not performing annual audit. There are a total 54 credit societies which have not conducted annual audit and there are 21 such credit societies from Ponda taluka alone. Tiswadi (18 societies) and Bicholim (14 societies) follow the list.
In the year 2018-19 there are less deposits in this credit cooperative societies. The deposits this year are Rs 7020.20 crore and advances are around Rs 3037.16 crore.
There was substantial increase of deposits during 2015-16 and 2017-18.
Meanwhile, the banking sector is improving in the state. There is good coverage of banks in Goa as the state with 191 villages and 11 urban bodies has a network of around 834 bank branches.
