‘State lost `390cr in powerlooms’
The state exchequer has lost around `390 crore due to non-recovery of dues from Power Loom Cooperative Societies (PLCS) since 1996.
All societies availed financial assistance from the state and Central schemes, but failed to repay the amount in
the stipulated time. However, the state managed to recover a meagre 5.26 per cent of the total amount.
Significantly, the PLCs that need to repay the major part of the loans belong to western Maharashtra. One of the cooperatives, named after NCP chief Sharad Pawar, still has to pay `7.73 crore in the form of share capital, loan with interest and penalties. The revelation came from the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report, which was tabled in the State Legislature on Thursday.
The department of cooperation and textile along with national cooperative development corporation (NCDC) has provided share capital and loan to some 425 PLCs for boosting the textile sector.
The terms and conditions of recoveries were decided by the state government in terms of share capital and loan, along with the interest chargeable.
According to the report, the scrutiny of the records revealed that since 1996 to 2012, the state government had extended financial assistance to total 425 PLCs to the extent of 90 per cent (10 per cent membership; 20 per cent share capital and 70 per cent loan) within 10 years in equal installments from the year of allotment.
The report noticed that the department failed to make the recovery and out of the `411.36 crore, only `21.65 crore was recovered. The outstanding sum recoverable till June 2012 was `389.71 crore.
Interestingly, the PLCs named after Mr Pawar is one out of the 76 PLCs that received 100 per cent financial assistance prior to 2001 and had completed their stipulated period of 10 years even after grant of moratorium period of one year for the payment of dues in March 2012.
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