Union Budget 2023: Amit Shah hails announcements on cooperative sector, says govt committed to increase income of farmers

New Delhi [India], February 1 (ANI): Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Wednesday said that following the mantra of 'Sahakar Se Samriddhi', the central government is determined to raise the standard of living of crores of people through cooperatives.
In a series of tweets, Shah hailed the Union Budget 2023 for the allocation made for the cooperative sector.
With the plan of setting up the world's largest decentralized storage capacity, farmers associated with cooperative societies will be able to get a fair price for their produce by selling it at an appropriate time. This will play an important role in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's resolve to increase the income of the farmers, he said.
Shah said that the unprecedented decisions taken in the budget today to strengthen the cooperative sector are a symbol of this determination.
The Minister of Cooperation said that in the next five years, the government will also establish new multipurpose cooperative societies, primary fisheries societies and dairy cooperative societies in every panchayat. This will give a new direction and speed to the cooperative movement, which will make this sector more empowered.
Shah also expressed his gratitude to PM Modi for keeping the cooperative societies of the manufacturing sector formed till March 31, 2024 in the 15 per cent tax net only. The decision to cap TDS on cash withdrawal at Rs 3 crore and making the limit upto Rs 2 lakh per member for cash deposits and loans for Primary Agriculture Credit Society (PACS) and Primary Cooperative Agricultural and Rural Development Banks (PCARDBs) is laudable.
Shah also added that he welcomes another important decision taken for the cooperative sector, in which sugar cooperatives have been given the facility to show the payments made to farmers before 2016-17 in their expenditure. Cooperative sugar mills will get a relief of Rs 10,000 crore.
Finance Minister tabled the Union Budget 2023 in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Speaking in Lok Sabha, Sitharaman said, "For farmers, especially small and marginal farmers, and other marginalized sections, the government is promoting a cooperative-based economic development model. A new Ministry of Cooperation was formed with a mandate to realize the vision of 'Sahakar Se Samriddhi'. To realize this vision, the government has already initiated computerization of 63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) with an investment of ` 2,516 crore."
In consultation with all stakeholders and states, model bye-laws for PACS were formulated enabling them to become multipurpose PACS. A national cooperative database is being prepared for country-wide mapping of cooperative societies, she said. (ANI)