Centre okays `2,516 cr to facelift 63,000 PACS

NEW DELHI: In a major decision toward increasing the efficiency of Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS), the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved Rs 2,516 crore for computerisation of functional 63,000 PACS aimed at promoting financial inclusion.

The decision in this regard would help in bringing transparency and accountability in their operations as well as facilitate Primary Agriculture Credit Societies to diversify their business and undertake multiple activities/ services.

According to Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, the decision would benefit 13 crore farmers, mostly small and marginal and the computerisation process would be completed over a period of 5 years with a total budget outlay of Rs 2,516 crore, out of which Rs 1,528 crore would be the share of Central government and remaining Rs 988 crore would be spent by the state governments.

The project comprises the development of cloud-based common software with cyber security and data storage, and providing hardware support to PACS, he said. It will also lead to digitisation of existing records.

The PACS constitutes the lowest tier of the three-tier short-term cooperative credit (STCC) in the country comprising of about 13 crore farmers as its members, which is crucial for the development of the rural economy.

The PACS account for 41 per cent (3.01 crore farmers) of the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) loans given by all entities in the country and 95 per cent of these KCC loans (2.95 crore farmers) through Primary Agriculture Credit Societies are to the small and marginal farmers.

The other two tiers such as state cooperative banks and district central cooperative banks (DCCBs) have already been automated by the NABARD and brought on common banking software (CBS).

As per informed sources, the development of digitisation model of Primary Agriculture Credit Societies is the brainchild of Abhay Singh, who is a 2004-batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre under the guidance of Amit Shah – the Union Minister of Home and Cooperation.

“It’s a fact that majority of PACS have so far been not computerised and still functioning manually resulting in inefficiency and trust deficit. In some of the states, standalone and partial computerisation of PACS has been done. There is no uniformity in the software being used by them and they are not interconnected with the district central cooperative banks and state cooperative banks,” the official said.

Project comprises the development of cloud-based common software with cyber security and data storage, and providing hardware support to PACS, he said