CRCS-Sahara
CRCS-Sahara: Cooperation Minister Amit Shah launched ‘CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal’ on Tuesday. The aim of the portal is to return the hard earned money of crores of people deposited in the four cooperative societies of Sahara Group in about 45 days.
Calling it a historic moment, he said it was the first time that depositors got their money back and assets of each were seized in a case involving multiple government agencies.
Shah assured the depositors that now no one can stop their money and they will get the refund within 45 days of registering on the portal. The government had said on March 29 that money would be returned to 10 crore investors of four cooperative societies within nine months. The announcement came after the Supreme Court ordered transfer of Rs 5,000 crore from the Sahara-SEBI refund account to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS).
He said initially depositors will get a refund of up to Rs 10,000 and later the amount will be increased for those who invest more. He said the Rs 5,000 crore fund will be able to provide relief to 1.7 crore depositors in the first phase.
Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited, Saharan Universal Multipurpose Society Limited, Hamara India Credit Cooperative Society Limited. And Stars Multipurpose Co-operative Society Limited, about 2.5 crore people in these four cooperative societies have deposits of up to Rs 30,000.
“After paying Rs 5,000 crore to depositors, we will approach the Supreme Court and request them to release more money, so that other depositors with higher amounts can get full refund,” Shah said.
A subsidiary of IFCI has developed a portal for depositors of these co-operative societies to submit valid claims.
Shah said two things are necessary for this – Aadhaar enrollment with mobile and linking of Aadhaar with the bank account where the refund is to be deposited. He said that the Common Service Centers will help the depositors to register online on the portal.
