In order to limit cash transactions by farmers, Union minister for home and co-operation Amit Shah on Saturday proposed shifting of bank accounts of all farmers and local cooperative bodies to District-level cooperative banks.
“Farmers do not want to do “tax chori” (evade taxes). But the farmers do not know that the moment they give cash (for a purchase), the tax evasion starts. Farmers do not have to pay tax and so there is no question of them evading tax,” said Shah who was in Gandhinagar to lay the foundation stone for the ₹32 crore office building of National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India Ltd (NCDFI). The land for the NCDFI building has been provided at Anand by NDDB.
“In Gujarat we have started a small experiment. With the help of Panchmahal District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union and Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union and Gujarat State Cooperative Bank we are giving RuPay cards to every farmer. We are converting all village-level dairy cooperatives as bank mitra and giving them ATMs. And we are transferring bank accounts of all farmers and village dairy in the district cooperative bank. In Banaskantha district alone ₹800 crore worth of deposits have increased and 193 ATMs have become functional and 96 percent of farmers in the district have got RuPay cards,” he said at the event where Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel, Chairman of NDDB Meenesh Shah, Chairman NCDFI Mangal Jit Rai were also present.
Amit Shah said farmers will not have to depend on cash to make the “smallest of purchases.” “They can use their RuPay cards to pay,” said asking heads of milk cooperatives to study the model and spread the awareness at village level.
Shah said cooperative bodies will have to assist each other. “Cooperation between cooperatives can boost their strength. The Union minister said he would visit Panchmahal (a predominantly tribal region) and Banaskantha (largely agrarian region) districts of Gujarat in January 2024 in this regard. “I have requested Ajay Patel, the chairman of Gujarat State Cooperative Bank to replicate and percolate this model— where bank accounts of all farmers and village level milk cooperatives are in district cooperative banks — across all districts of Gujarat by keeping the dairy cooperatives in the centre.,” he added. BJP leaders including Speaker of Gujarat Assembly and Banas Dairy chairman Shankarbhai Chaudhary, IFFCO Chairman Dileep Sanghani, Jetha Bharwad, Jayesh Radadiya, Mulubhai Bera, Jasa Barad are among those on the Board of Director of GSC Bank which is an Ahmedabad-based apex bank for 18 district central cooperative banks in Gujarat.
Source : The Hindu Businessline Dec 30th 2023