A Bill to amend the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, aimed at bringing in transparency in the sector, was introduced in the Lok Sabha on on December 7.
- The Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022, was introduced by Minister of State (MoS) for Cooperation B.L. Verma.
- India, at present, has nearly 800,000 cooperative societies of which around 1,600 are MSCS.
- They serve the interest of members in more than one state. These include some big names like IFFCO, Kribhco and Nafed.
Key provisions
- The Bill seeks to strengthen governance, reform the electoral process, improve the monitoring mechanism, and ensure ease of doing business in multi-State cooperative societies.
- It aims to improve the composition of boards and ensure financial discipline, besides enabling the raising of funds in the multi-State cooperative societies.
- It seeks to establish a “cooperative election authority” to bring “electoral reforms” in the cooperative sector. For this, the government has proposed to substitute Section 45 of the 2002 Act. The authority will consist of a chairperson, a vice-chairperson and a maximum of three members to be appointed by the Centre.
- The Bill seeks to insert a new Section — 63A — in the principal Act. This relates to “establishment of the Cooperative Rehabilitation, Reconstruction and Development Fund” for revival of “sick multi-state cooperative societies”.
- It proposes to insert a new Section — 70A — relating to “concurrent audit” for such multi-state societies with an annual turnover or deposit of more than the amount as determined by the Centre.
- The government has proposed to insert a new Chapter IX-A relating to “complaints redress”.
- This proposes to appoint one or more “cooperative ombudsman” with a territorial jurisdiction to inquire into members’ complaints. For this, a new Section 85 will be added in the law.
- The proposes to amend Section 104 of the existing Act to increase monetary penalties on multi-state co-op societies for violating provisions of the law to a maximum Rs 1 lakh.
- The imprisonment term has also been proposed from a maximum six months at present to up to one year in the proposed amendments.
