Expenditure by the Union Ministry of Cooperation has come under lens after a report by the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food Processing presented to the Parliament. The ministry, formed just two years ago, had spent only Rs 136.34 crore till January 31, 2023, but after 24 days, this expenditure increased to Rs 513.50 crore by February 24, 2023.
In the financial year 2022-23, the Ministry of Cooperation was allocated a budgetary estimate of Rs 900 crore, according to the report by the Parliamentary panel. Later, the fiscal support was increased to Rs 1,624.74 crore at the time of Revised Estimates.
The budget was increased to Rs.2056.13 crore again after the supplementary grant demands, the paper added.
In contrast, the Union ministry has not been able to do much in terms of spending the budget. Till January 31, 2023, the ministry was able to spend only Rs 136.34 crore or about 6.7 per cent of the total budget, the panel found.
A separate budget was allocated to the ministry in 2022-23, it told the panel, which is why the expenditure was less till January 2023. However, by February 24, the expenses jumped by 513.50 crore or 57 per cent of the estimated budget of Rs 900 crore.
When the committee questioned the ministry regarding the expenditure, the ministry assured that it would spend the amount received from the grant after getting some necessary approvals. However, the ministry did not give any explanation for spending around Rs 377 crore in a month.
The Parliamentary committee advised the ministry to complete all necessary formalities on time for expenditure on all schemes and programs for 2022-23.
The ministry was earlier just a department under the Union Ministry of Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Cooperation. The Central Government constituted a separate Ministry of Cooperation in July 2021, keeping in view the possibilities in the field of cooperatives in the country.
The decision was taken in the cabinet meeting held on July 6, 2021. Its objective is to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country further and for this a separate administrative, legal and policy framework has to be prepared.
The committee also pointed out a lack of transparency and clarity in the functioning of cooperatives. At present, there are 854,000 cooperative societies registered in the country, of which the number of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies is 95,000.
However, it is unclear whether these operate under the central government or state / Union territory governments.
The committee, therefore, recommended that the Union ministry consider bringing all cooperative societies under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The officials of the ministry have been asked to talk to the state governments over the issue.
The ministry has also assured the panel about considering bringing multi-state cooperative societies running under the central government under RTI.
The history of cooperatives in India is more than 100 years old. The first formal cooperative initiative started in 1904. The first Cooperative Credit Societies Act was enacted in 1904, but it was limited to credit cooperative societies only.
But after Independence from British colonial rule, the cooperative sector expanded a lot and its role in the country’s economy became important. In 1950-51, where there were 181,000 lakh cooperative societies, today their number has increased to 854,000.