CCEA approves the computerization of all Primary Agricultural Credit Societies on a budget of INR 2,516 crore

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a proposal for the Computerization of all Primary Agriculture Credit Society (PACS) with a budget of  INR 2,516 Cr. for approximately 13 Crore farmers.

According to Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, PACS will benefit heavily from digitalization. The PACS constitute the lowest tier of the three-tier Short Term Cooperative Credit (STCC) including 13 Crore farmers. Mr. Shah further said that digitalization will take place at the cost of INR 2,526 Cr. and each PACS will have the credit of INR 4 lakh to upgrade into digitalization. Mr. Shah said in his statement, “In this digital age, the decision of computerization of PACS will increase their transparency, reliability, and efficiency, and will also facilitate the accounting of multipurpose PACS.”

Mr. Shah also added the software will be available for farmers in their preferred languages. He also stated that PACS will become a nodal center for providing various services such as Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS), Crop Insurance Scheme (PMFBY), and inputs like fertilizers and seeds.

According to a statement by the government, PACS will be given 41% of the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) loans by all organizations in the country, and 95% of this KCC loan will be given to farmers from small and marginalized communities.

State Cooperative Banks (StCB) and District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCB) have already been automatized by the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and incorporated into the Common Banking Software (CBS). The government said, “However, the majority of PACS have so far been not computerized and still functioning manually resulting in inefficiency and trust deficit. in some of the states, stand-alone and partial computerization of PACS has been done. There is no uniformity in the software being used by them and they are not interconnected with the DCCBs and StCBs.”

This digitalization process will help generate at least 10 jobs in each center. The center can get enough resources to form more PACS up to 3 lakh in the next 5 years. The officials also added that a pan India legislation could enable all states to be on board with the digitalization process.

Consequently, the government is planning to set up a National Cooperative University and establish a Multi-State Cooperative Societies Amendment Act 2002 in pan India’s interest.