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Cooperative Stabilization Fund Courts Controversy before Official Launch

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Cooperative Stabilization Fund Courts Controversy before Official Launch
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January 31: The Cooperative Stabilization Fund envisioned for bailing out the cooperatives that land in trouble has itself courted controversy before its official launch.

Despite initiating the process to launch the fund in accordance to the Cooperative Act related regulations, the concerned authorities have not been able to operate the fund due to dispute over the issues of operation modality and ownership.

The law has provision to include all the cooperatives that are involved in credit and savings business. Nepal Savings and Credit Central Association

However, some cooperatives have alleged that the Nepal Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperative Unions (NEFSCUN), the umbrella body of cooperatives in Nepal, is trying to operate the fund single-handedly.

This has cast doubt over the operation of the fund.

The Cooperatives Regulation has a provision for the chairman of NEFSCUN to lead the fund while the CEO of the federation will have the post of member secretary of the fund. Taking advantage of this provision, NEFSCUN started operating the fund by recruiting its members in the fund. The decision came under criticism from other cooperatives.

The Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation had formed a work procedure to operate the fund two years ago. NEFSCUN then organized a meeting of cooperatives in January-February 2020 and initiated the process to register the fund at the Department of Investment. However, both the department and the ministry denied such permission after protest from the cooperative sector. NEFSCUN, however, has been pressing for the operation of the fund without registration.

As per the work procedure, cooperatives that have completed five years of operation and those that have been undergoing annual audit can be affiliated to the fund. The fund can be operated only after the deposit amount reaches Rs 100 million.

So far, the fund has collected Rs 700 million from 181 affiliated members.

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