Consumerfed draws up Rs 1,750-mn for expansion

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State Cooperative Consumers Federation (Consumerfed) has drawn up a project with an outlay of Rs 175 crore for strengthening and expanding its activities.

The Minister for Cooperation, Mr G. Sudhakaran, said that Consumerfed had also prepared a vision document, Vision 2011, as part of the project, which had been submitted to the National Cooperative Development Council (NCDC) for approval.

He said that the federation would start a hotel chain and also set up Triveni Coffee Shops in Thiruvananthapuram, Kundara in Kollam district and Gandhi Nagar in Ernakulam.

Besides, food packets at nominal rates would be made available at the Secretariat and the Vikas Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram and the civil station in Ernakulam.

He said that the audit in respect of primary cooperative societies as on March 31, 2008, had not been completed. The net loss of the societies as on that date had been put at Rs 746.75 crore.

The Minister informed the House that a number of measures had been taken to bring down the NPAs of the cooperative banks and primary cooperative societies.

These included prompting those who had taken loans, through notices or directly, to settle the arrears; initiating procedures at the bank level to recover the amounts from the guarantors; speeding up arbitration and execution processes to recover the arrears; and creation of recovery cells at the societies level in the case of primary societies and at branch, taluk and district levels in the case of cooperative banks.

Mr Sudhakaran said that the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) was expected to refinance 40 per cent of the agricultural loans extended by the district cooperative banks to the primary societies.

The balance 60 per cent is to be financed by the State Cooperative Bank and the district cooperative banks from their own funds.

However, as the NPA of the State Cooperative Bank has exceeded 20 per cent, Nabard has reduced the quantum of refinance from 40 per cent to 35 per cent.

Besides, the Nabard refinance was available only for short-term agricultural loans, the Minister said.