Thiruvananthapuram: The cooperative societies in the state are facing huge tax liability after they took up the implementation of government welfare schemes, including distribution of pension. The societies will have to remit Rs 90.4 crore as tax for giving KSRTC and welfare pensions and paddy procurement fund alone. The government has not taken up the tax liability.
According to the new conditions, when an amount over Rs 1 crore is withdrawn, they will be charged with a tax of 2 percent. Though banks are exempted from this, cooperative societies do not get any relaxation.
Welfare pension worth Rs 3000 crore, KSRTC pension worth Rs 60 crore and paddy procurement fund worth Rs 800 crore are distributed through primary cooperative societies. They will have to withdraw around Rs 4520 crore for these purposes and also have to remit a tax of Rs 90.4 crore for the transaction.
A government company has been formed for the distribution of welfare pension. The amount for pension distribution is given to the company by a consortium of cooperative banks. The cooperative societies are facing huge crisis for taking up the government’s welfare projects.
The cooperative bank branches in cities deal with transaction of about Rs 25 crore on a daily basis. Some of the cooperative banks have upto 40 branches. All of them have to withdraw large amounts and pay two percent tax for the transactions.
In addition to this, they now have to bear the tax liability by handling the welfare schemes of the government. The cooperative societies are of the demand that the pension company should bear the tax for the pension amount. They have informed this to the consortium manager. However, the consortium manager responded that the government should decide on it.
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