CHAPTER -XI
Co-operation

11.1.0 The Co-operative movements in Assam, which started in 1904, has passed through several phases of development but has not yet achieved its desired goal. Since the economy of Assam is pre-dominantly rural in character, an extensive network of sound and viable co-operative can help tremendously in achieving the much needed economic growth and social change of the State. The progress of co-operative movement in the State is however, hampered by the increasing incidence of uneconomic and dormant co-operatives.

11.1.1 According to the information available, at the end of 1999-2000 the number of co-operative societies both credit and non-credit came down to 8826 from 8959 in 1998-99. Similarly, the membership of the co-operative societies of the Stte have also reduced by 3.361 in 1999-2000 over those of the year 1998-99. The volume of working capital of these societies decreased to Rs 141.06 crore in 1999-2000 from Rs 155.99 core in 1998-99, but the amount of share capital of these societies has increased to Rs 43.17 crore in 1999-2000 as against Rs 40.17 crore in 1998-99 registering a growth of about 6.04 per cent over the previous year. The growth of co-operative societies in the State over the past few years including their membership, share capital and working capital may be seen in the table – 11.1.

TABLE – 11.1
GROWTH OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN ASSAM

ASSAM STATE CO-OPERATIVE APEX BANK:

11.2.0 The Assam State Co-operative Apex Bank, which started functioning from the year 1948, is a pioneer co-operative institution in channelizing credit for agricultural operations for development of rural economy financing the wholesale trade through co-operative channel in the State. During the year 2000-2001 the bank had a total membership of 34,332 numbers while its working capital stood at Rs 548.51 crore during the year. The volume of deposits with the bank was Rs 421.12 crore in the year 2000-2001. The total volume of loans and advances issued by the bank during the year was Rs 199.01 crore and loans outstanding with the bank aggregated to Rs 226.10 crore. As regards loans overdue, it was Rs 106.45 crore during the year under reference. The loss incurred by the bank during the year was Rs 27.47 crore.

CO-OPERATIVE CENTRAL BANK:

11.2.1 The number of Co-operative Central Bank in the State was 19 (nineteen) in 1990-2000 as against 20 (twenty) in 1998-99. The total membership of these banks altogether stood at 13,931 in 1999-2000. The banks with a volume of working capital of Rs 2,484.21 lakh issued loans and advances to the tune of Rs 80.73 lakh during 1999-2000 as compared to Rs 181.72 lakh of loans and advances issued with the working capital of Rs 2489.21 lakh during the year 1998-99. Loan outstanding at the end of 1999-2000 amounted to Rs 916.77 lakh as against Rs 948.96 lakh in 1998-99. The loan overdue was decreased to Rs 766.20 lakh in 1999-2000 from Rs 801.23 lakh in 1998-99. As a result percentage of loans overdue to loans outstanding decreased to 83.6 per cent in 1999-2000 from 84.4 per cent in 1998-99. As regards deposits of the bank it came down to Rs 1748.51 lakh in 1999-2000 from Rs 1751.02 lakh in 1998-99.

ASSAM CO-OPERATIVE AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT BANK (ASCARD):

11.2.2 The Assam Co-operative Agricultural and Rural Development Bank (ASCARD) has 35 branches with total membership of 3340 numbers during 2000-2001. The working capital of the bank amounted to Rs 34.74 crore in 2000-2001. The volume of deposit with the Bank was Rs 28.36 lakh in 2000-2001. The Bank has not executed any long-term loan during the last few yeas but the loan outstanding with the bank was considerably high i.e. Rs 17.43 crore and Rs 17.68 crore during 2000-2001 and 1999-2000 respectively.

PRIMARY CREDIT SOCIETIES:

11.2.3 At the end of March, 2000, there were 752 numbers of Primary Credit Societies functioning in the State comprising 707 Gaon Panchayat Level Samabai Samiti (GPSS) and 45 Large Area Multipurpose Co-operative Societies (LAMPS). The GPSS were organized in 1973 to function in the plain Districts of the State. The total number of membership stood at 27,672,17 (Both nominal and regular) of these societies at the end of March 2000. On the other hand, agricultural credit in the two Hill Districts of the State are routed through Large Area Multipurpose Co-operative Societies (LAMPS). The total membership of these societies numbered 15,453 till end of the March 1999. The financial position and performance of GPSS and LAMPS for each of the year 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 have been shown in the table – 11.2.

TABLE – 11.2
STATISTICS RELATED TO GPSS AND LAMPS IN ASSAM

NON-CREDIT SOCIETIES:

11.2.4 The Non-Credit Societies includes various categories of societies with its activities in many diverse fields such as Marketing, Farming, Weaving, Fishery, Milk Supply, Consumer Co-operative etc. As per data available, the number of few different categories of non-credit societies in the State during 1999-2000 were as follows.

The total number of Wholesale Consumer Co-operative Societies was 38 while Primary Consumer Co-operative Societies numbered 413 during 1999-2000.

11.3.0 Besides the privately sponsored co-operative societies some State Government sponsored societies/federations have also been promoted in the State over the years. There are STAEFED, HOUSEFED, FISHFED, ARTFED etc. Moreover, there are some large sized processing co-operative in the State, which include Co-operative Sugar Mill, Jute Mill, Spinning Mill, Fruit Processing Unit, etc. Table-11.3 shows the working and financial position of a few non-credit co-operative societies of the State.

TABLE – 11.3
STATISTICS RELATED TO FEW NON-CREDIT CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN ASSAM
(Rupees in lakh)