KCS Act & Rules amendment bill placed in the assembly

KCS ACT & RULES AMENDMENT BILL PLACED IN THE ASSEMBLY TODAY. THE BILL WILL BE DISCUSSED IN THE SUBJECT COMMITTEE TODAY ITSELF AND THE BILL WILL BE CONSIDERED  TOMORROW.


THE LONG AWAITING 'GAHAN' SCHEME FOR URBAN COOP BANKS OF KERALA WILL BE MATERIALISED WITH THIS AMENDMENT.

Dhenkanal Urban Coop Bank closed

Dhenkanal (Odisha / Orissa): The 60-year-old Dhenkanal Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd was shut down due to persistent bankruptcy for the last two years.  Following the guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India, the Odisha government has issued an order on February 18, 2010 for the liquidation of the bank imposing the Odisha Cooperative Act 133 A(2).

Closure of DUCB has not only hurt the sentiments of the locals here, but has also drawn a question mark on the future of 18,824 depositors who are yet to get back Rs 10.85 crore from the bank towards their deposits.

The Jamakari Surakhya Mancha (JSM) has blamed the cooperation minister for such unfortunate development as it had been earlier assured to arrange Rs 5 crore from Government to save the bank from closure.


courtesy : http://www.orissadiary.com/

UCBs to pay interest on SB accounts on a daily product basis from 01.04.2010

please see the related circular below: RBI/2009-10/339 UBD (PCB) BPD.Cir.No. 48/13.01.000 / 2009-10 March 4, 2010 Chief Executive Officer All Primary (Urban) Cooperative Banks Dear Sir, Payment of Interest on Savings Bank Account on Daily Product Basis Please refer to our circular UBD (PCB) BPD.Cir.No. 7/13.01.000/2009-10 dated September 1, 2009 advising banks to put in place requisite infrastructure so that transition to the revised procedure of calculating interest on balances in savings bank accounts on a daily product basis could be implemented smoothly. 2.  We advise that payment of interest on savings bank accounts may be made by banks on a daily product basis with effect from April 1, 2010. Yours faithfully, (A.K. Khound) Chief General Manager-in-Charge

RBI ALLOWS BULLET REPAYMENT FOR GOLD LOANS by DCB & SCBs

here is the circular which allows DCBs and SCBs to repay the Gold loans in lumpsum:

RBI/2009-10/342
RPCD.CO.RF.BC.No.60/07.37.02/2009-10

March 5, 2010

All State and District Central Co-operative Banks
Dear Sir,
Repayment of Gold Loan
State and Central Co-operative Banks grant loans for various purposes against the security of gold /gold ornaments as part of their lending policy. As per extant instructions (c.f. our circular RPCD.RF.BC.No.69/07.37.02/2002-03 dated January 31, 2003), banks charge interest at monthly rests on loans and advances granted for purposes other than agricultural and allied activities.
2. On a review, it has been decided to permit bullet repayment of gold loans up to Rupees one lakh as an additional option. State and Central Co-operative Banks are, therefore, permitted to lay down policies with the approval of their Board for sanction of gold loan with bullet repayment option subject to the following guidelines:

1. The amount of gold loan sanctioned should not exceed Rs. 1.00 lakh at any point of time.
2. The period of loan shall not exceed 12 months from the date of sanction.
3. Interest will be charged to the account at monthly rests, but will become due for payment along with repayment of principal only at the end of 12 months from the date of sanction.
4. The bank should prescribe a minimum margin to be maintained in case of such loans and accordingly, fix the loan limit taking into account the market value of the security (gold / gold ornament), expected price fluctuations, interest that will accrue during the tenure of the loan, etc.
5. Such loans shall be governed by the extant income recognition, asset classification and provisioning norms which shall be applicable once the principal and interest become overdue.
6. The account would also be classified as NPA (sub standard category) even before the due date of repayment, if the prescribed margin is not maintained.

3. It is clarified that crop loans sanctioned against the collateral security of gold/gold ornaments shall continue to be governed by the extant income recognition, asset classification and provisioning norms for such loans.
Yours faithfully,
(R.C.Sarangi)
Chief General Manager

GAHAAN IS COMING!

as per reports from  believable sources, it is understood that the scheme for introduction of Gahan scheme for Urban Co-operative Banks of Kerala state will be placed before the Kerala Assembly within a few days.  with the introduction of this scheme, the UCBs will be able to sanction loans without registering the title deeds of landed property at a registrar office paying a huge amount as registration fee.  as this fee is to be paid by the borrower, so many good customers are keeping away from UCBs.  all other types of co-operative credit institutions have been already covered by this scheme.  the attractive feature of this scheme is that the name of the bank will appear in the encumbrance certificate, and thus the enhanced security from the part of the bank is ensured.
we can wait for that good news...

FM to heed urban co-op bankers' tax relief plea

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has promised a delegation of urban cooperative bankers that their demand for some relief from payment of 30 per cent income tax on the profits made by their banks will be considered. 

The delegation, which was led by CPI(M) MP Basudeb Acharia, told Mukherjee that the urban cooperative banks have been put to "extreme hardship" due to the hefty 30 per cent tax on profits. 

"They (urban cooperative banks) were exempted from payment of income tax for decades. These banks will be left with no funds to build their reserves after paying the tax and dividend to their members. Cooperative banks cannot survive in today's competitive atmosphere without raising their internal strength," a memorandum presented by the delegation said. 

The memorandum demanded removal of the discrimination under Sec 80C of the Income Tax Act under which fixed deposits in cooperative banks do not not enjoy tax benefits given to scheduled commercial banks. 

It also sought restoration of the income tax exemption under Sec 80P which they had enjoyed ever since inception but was removed during their centenary year four years ago. 

Forum Convener C.V Kumar presented to the minister an appeal signed by 50,000 members of the cooperative banks and public from across the southern states pressing their demand. 

Kumar said the minister took note of the points raised by them and promised to consider them.

courtesy : economic times

RBI signs MoU with Bihar on urban cooperative banks

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Bihar Government have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on urban cooperative banks (UCBs) in the state.

Consequent to the agreement, signed yesterday, a State level Task Force on Urban Co-operative Banks (TAFCUB) has been constituted for Bihar.

Mr K K Vohra, Regional Director for Bihar and Jharkhand, RBI, is the Chairman of the TAFCUB and Mr Narsingh Upadhyay, Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Government of Bihar is its co-Chairman. The other members of the TAFCUB include a representative each from the National Federation for Urban Co-operative Banks (NAFCUB), State Urban Banks Federation, a nominee of the Bihar Government and a representative from Urban Banks Department, RBI. The first meeting of the TAFCUB will be held shortly, a press release from RBI said.

It said similar MoUs had earlier been signed with the Governments of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Chattisgarh, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Puduchery, Delhi, Haryana, West Bengal, Tripura, Punjab, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir as also the Central Government. All the UCBs in the country are now covered under MoU.
As part of its developmental role, the RBI would also be assessing the training and computerization needs of the UCBs in Bihar with the objective of upgrading their human resources skills and technological infrastructure so that they improve their operational efficiency and quality of management information systems.

The RBI had, in its Mid-Term Review of Annual Policy announced in October 2004, announced that a vision document for UCBs would be prepared.

Accordingly, the central bank placed in the public domain a draft vision document in March 2005.As the Urban Co-operative Banks are subject to dual control by the Reserve Bank and the State Governments, the vision document envisaged the signing of MoU between State Governments and the Reserve Bank of India to put in place an arrangement through which there is convergence on the approach and remedial actions required to be taken for facilitating the development of the sector.

The vision document also proposed the constitution of a State Level Task Force of Urban Co-operative Banks with representatives of State Government, State/National Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks and the Reserve Bank of India as its members, for the purpose of identifying the potentially viable urban co-operative banks and drawing up a time-bound action plan for their revival by setting specific monitorable milestones.


courtesy : netindian news network