Primary Agriculture Credit Societies to be computerised
Will bring transparency and efficiency; to become nodal delivery service point at Panchayat level
The government said 63,000 functional Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) will be computerized over five years, which will improve efficiency, bring transparency and accountability, and allow PACS to undertake multiple services.
An overall budget outlay of Rs.2,516 crore has been earmarked to this (Rs.1,528 crore or nearly 60% from the centre), and is expected to benefit about 13 crore member farmers, most of which are Small & Marginal farmers.
Computerisation will include cloud-based unified software with data storage, cyber security, hardware, digitization of existing records, besides maintenance and training.
PACS account for 41% (3.01 crore farmers) of the KCC loans given by all entities in the country and 95% of these loans (2.95 crore farmers) through PACS are to the Small and Marginal farmers.
The other two tiers — State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) and District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) — have already been automated by the NABARD and brought on Common Banking Software (CBS), said the government.
“Computerization of PACS, besides serving the purpose of financial inclusion and strengthening service delivery to farmers especially Small & Marginal Farmers (SMFs) will also will become nodal service delivery point for various services and provision of inputs like fertilizers, seeds etc.”, said the government.
“The project will help in improving the outreach of the PACS as outlets for banking activities as well as non-Banking activities apart from improving digitalisation in rural areas.”
In the case of states where computerization of PACS has been completed, Rs.50,000 per PACS will be reimbursed if they agree to integrate with/adopt the common software, their hardware meets the required specifications, and provided the software was commissioned after 1 February 2017.
Send your comments to feedback@mddtimes.com
