Income tax should be removed: Urban Coop Banks

With the arrival of budget season round the corner, activities to fight for the removal of Income Tax on cooperatives have gathered momentum. A delegation of Urban Cooperative banks met Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee on Wednesday (23/02/2011) to demand for removal of IT on urban cooperative banks.

Readers may be aware that income tax was imposed on cooperatives in the year 2006 and it continues since then.

Urban banks have argued that since its area of operation involves vulnerable section of population where the risk is high, it should be exempted from IT net. We tread a path where private commercial banks fear to go and it not only banking but a kind of social service,they argue.

According to reliable sources, Pranab Mukerjee has assured

Urban Cooperative Bank delegation demands I-T scrap

New Delhi, Feb 23 (PTI) A delegation representing urban cooperative banks today met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and demanded that the government should not impose income tax on such institutions, enabling them to improve their financial status.

The delegation of Forum of Urban Cooperative Banks led by Basudev Acharia (CPI-M) and its convenor C V Kumar met Mukherjee in Parliament House and demanded to scrap the Income Tax imposed on such banks.

The delegation also requested that effective tax rates on cooperative banks be reduced.

"The Finance Minister sought some clarifications from us and assured that our concerns would either be addressed in the current budget or when the Direct Tax Code becomes effective," Kumar told PTI.

The delegation said the Finance Minister gave them a patient hearing and appeared positive to their demands.

Courtesy : yahoo.finance

Two co-operative banks face penalty from RBI

Mumbai: Two cooperative sector lenders -- Surat Mercantile Co-operative Bank and Urban Co-operative Bank, Cuttack were fined by the Reserve Bank with a penalty of 5 lakh due to the reason being violation of certain banking norms.

"The RBI has imposed a monetary penalty of 5 lakh on the Surat Mercantile Co-operative Bank for violation of RBI instructions on disposal of non-banking assets, donations and purchasing of cheques," the apex bank said in a statement.

Urban Co-operative Bank, Cuttack has faced the penalty only upto 1 lakh for violation of instructions relating to opening of collection counters without prior approval RBI.

"After considering the facts of the case and the bank's reply in the matter, the RBI came to the conclusion that the violations were substantiated and warranted imposition of the penalty," it said. 

courtesy : www.siliconindia.com

RBI imposes penalty on four cooperative banks

Mumbai: The Reserve Bank on Tuesday imposed penalties of Rs1 lakh each on four cooperative banks on various charges including violation of anti-money laundering guidelines.
The four banks are the Jamnagar Mahila Sahakari Bank, Amreli Nagarik Sahkari Bank, Shri Mahila Sewa Sahakari Bank, Ahmedabad, and the Virambam Mercantile Cooperative Bank, the RBI said in different statements.
While Jamnagar Mahila Sahakari Bank and Amreli Nagarik Sahkari Bank were found guilty of violating instructions related to anti-money laundering guidelines, the Ahmedabad- based Shri Mahila Sewa Sahakari Bank was held responsible for violating instructions on grant of unsecured advances in excess of the prescribed ceiling.
The Virambam Mercantile Cooperative Bank, meanwhile, was charged with non-filing of cash transaction report with concerned authorities.
RBI did not provide further details of the cases.
RBI’s action comes a day after it imposed penalties of up to Rs5 lakh on two cooperative sector lenders - Surat Mercantile Co-operative Bank and Urban Co-operative Bank, Cuttack - for violation of banking norms.

Courtesy : www.livemint.com

NAFCUB : Patil makes a strong case for Budgetary concessions

The Direct Tax Code which has been introduced in Parliament as Bill has apparently treated the Cooperative Sector in a very casual and dismissive manner. It could be a fact that as the share of urban cooperative banking sector being less than 4% of the resources of the banking industry, it might not have been looked at as important enough a segment to warrant attention it otherwise deserves.

Although the urban banking sector account for only 4% of the banking sector resources, this sector caters to 60 million account holders and 15 million depositors. The membership of urban banks is over 20 million.

In addition to urban banks, there are over 40,000 cooperative credit societies in the Country(apart from PACs) catering perhaps over 20 million population, that ensure that their members do not go back

Revolver found in tainted bank GM's locker

JAIPUR: A revolver has been recovered from the locker of a working general manager of  Urban Cooperative Bank, who was arrested from Ajmer by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for accepting bribe.

ACB sleuths had arrested Brijraj Singh for accepting a bribe of around Rs one lakh on Tuesday and were stunned when they recovered the revolver from one of his lockers during a raid.

Singh had also accepted an LCD TV from a businessman for issuing him a no objection certificate, ACB