NRB furnishes five-point suggestions to address problems of cooperatives

The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has presented five-point suggestions to address the problems of financial cooperatives.

In today's meeting of the Parliamentary Probe Special Committee formed to investigate the misuse of savings of depositors in financial cooperatives, NRB Governor Maha Prasad Adhikari shared that problems seen in the cooperatives sector could be resolved by following the-five-point suggestions.

Governor Adhikari suggested returning the savings of the depositors in three phases. He suggested that savings up to Rs 100,000 of the depositors could be returned in the first phase, while up to Rs 500,000 in second phase and more than Rs 500,000 in the third phase.

The NRB has forwarded a proposal to form a dedicated group to resolve problems as well as to move ahead following the measures adopted while addressing the problems of banks.

He advised that necessary arrangements should be made on the issue of cooperatives that have functioned without restriction of geography.

 Similarly, Chief Executive Officer of Credit Information Bureau, Anil Chandra Adhikari suggested making arrangements for an integrated Information System at the Bureau.  Establishment of a separate information bureau on the issues of insurance and cooperatives was suggested in the meeting.

Alerting about possible problems to be surfaced in other financial institutions like that of cooperatives, President of Nepal Bankers' Association, Sunil KC laid emphasis on the need of resolving the problems soon.

Coordinator of erstwhile cooperative suggestion taskforce, Dr Jay Kanta Raut, explained that problems are increasing in the cooperatives sector for lack of implementation of the suggestions.

Most of the financial cooperatives are operating against cooperatives norms, values and principles are in problems, he added.

Experts laid emphasis on the need of establishing a Credit Recovery Tribunal in the financial cooperatives sector.

On the occasion, Chairperson of the Special Committee Surya Bahadur Thapa said the Committee has not started discussions on whether the government should pay the victim cooperatives' depositors. Discussions are underway keeping it in mind that returning the savings of depositors was the main responsibility of cooperatives. 

Officers who had already worked as registrar of the Cooperative Department after 2048 BS have been invited for tomorrow's meeting.    Similarly, discussions would be held with the financial cooperatives' victims in other meetings.