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Journalism of Courage
The reforms undertaken by the Centre in cooperative sector has benefited Maharashtra the most, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis said on Sunday.
The Centre’s decision to exempt the tax on amount above FRP (Fair & Remunerative Price) paid to sugarcane farmers has seen the state getting maximum benefit worth Rs 8,000 crore, Fadnavis said.
It is mandatory for sugar mills to pay FRP to sugarcane farmers. But those mills which paid farmers an amount higher than FRP were taxed. As a result, farmers were deprived of higher rates.
Over the years, the cumulative tax amount worth Rs 8,000 crore was unpaid. Despite repeated requests from a delegation led by sugar federation, the issue remained unresolved. After Amit Shah took charge as Minister for Cooperation, he addressed the issue of not only exempting tax on funds paid beyond FRP, but also accumulated tax with retrospective effect.
The empowerment of primary agriculture credit societies by according it multi-purpose status will bring real transformation at grassroots, he told media persons on Sunday.
“A 20-point programme for strengthening Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS) is a big step forward. The revival and strengthening of PACS will pave the way forward for expansion of agriculture businesses and help farmers,” the Deputy CM said.
It must be mentioned here that PACS is a basic unit and smallest cooperative credit institution in state/country. It functions at grassroots essentially at village and gram panchayat levels.
There are a total of one lakh PACS across the country. Maharashtra leads with maximum number of over 21,000 PACS.
The main function of PACS is to provide short and medium-term purpose loans to its members. It draws funds from central financial agencies to help its members. Through PACS, the larger objective is to drive cooperative sector through grassroots institutions to ensure it benefits the smaller and marginal farmers living in distant villages.
Earlier, responding to a question from media on whether Amit Shah and NCP state chief Jayant Patil held a meeting in Pune, Fadnavis said, “It was not true.”
“As far as I know, there was no meeting between Amit Shah and Jayant Patil. All these reports about their meeting was kite flying by some section in media,” he said.
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