Wednesday, November 28, 2001
The Department of Cooperatives is toying with the idea of launching an exclusive Non-Resident Indian (NRI) Cooperative Bank with a paid up capital of Rs. 25 crores in the State. Modalities for the administrative set-up and functioning of the bank have already been worked out. The bank will start its operational activities in a couple of months’ time, according to highly-placed Government sources.
Plans are afoot to mobilise the capital from two routes for the bank to be headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram and with branches in known ``Gulf pockets of the State''. Two-fifths of the total sum - Rs. 10 crores - would be contributed by the cooperative sector, including the societies, banks and institutions. The rest of the amount would be collected from the NRIs in Gulf countries and Gulf-returnees in the State. Memberships in the bank would be given solely to NRIs and Gulf- returnees and their dependents. The scheme of the membership has been divided into three categories - Class A, Class B and Class C depending on the stake in the paid-up capital. There would be 1.2 lakh members in all the three categories.
The Class A and Class C memberships will be open to 50,000 individuals each and Class B to 20,000 units, including Government agencies, financial institutions and various public sector undertakings. The rate of a Class A membership is Rs. 2,000, Class B Rs. 5,000 and Class C Rs. 1,000. Only Class A members will be entitled to vote at the annual general body meetings. The State Planning Board member, Mr. C .P. John, is one of chief promoters of the proposed bank. The business tycoon based in Dubai, Mr. P. V. Abdul Wahab, Mr. V. Gopinath (Saudi Arabia) Mr. P. V. Ravindran (Oman) and Mr. Sadhoo Razaque, former municipal chairman of Malappuram, are among the promoters. However, the members on the director board are yet to be constituted. The idea of establishing a bank had been formed primarily on the basis of the studies conducted by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) on the condition of Gulf-returnees in the State. According to its recent report, the Malappuram district accounts for more than 1.23 lakh returnees followed by Thiruvananthapuram 1.18 lakhs and Thrissur 1.16 lakhs. Communitywise the Muslims stood at 43 per cent, the Hindus 33 per cent, the Christians 21 per cent and others 3 per cent.
Studies also revealed that only 37.8 per cent of the Gulf- returnees were self-employed, 26 per cent were in the agricultural sector, 2.2 in Government jobs and five per cent in other odd jobs. Only a meagre 6.4 per cent could afford to live off their savings and seven per cent were virtually unemployed. Perhaps one of the most significant objectives of the bank is the scheme adopted for rehabilitating the Gulf-returnees. Several welfare measures have been drawn up for the benefit of thousands of emigrants.
These include the long-standing demands of a pension scheme as well as an insurance scheme for the returnees.
In fact, the bank will function as a nodal agency for the rehabilitation of Gulf-returnees. Manpower training and recruitment, identifying core areas for re-employment, distributing loans for starting industries and working out projects in infrastructure development and tourism industry are some of the schemes. According to the Bureau of Economics and Statistics, there are 10.81 lakh NRI Malayalis in the Gulf countries. The official records show that there are 4.9 lakh Malayalis in the United Arab Emirates, 4.8 lakhs in the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia, 1.9 lakhs in the Sultanate of Oman, 69,000 in Baharin, 54,000 in Qatar and 46,000 in Kuwait.
Sources said that the aim of the bank was to attract at least 10 per cent of the estimated Rs. 23,000 crores of NRI deposits invested in hundreds of nationalised banks in the State. Besides, the cooperative sector has deposits approximately at Rs. 13, 000 crores in several of its branches. Proposals are that the new bank would offer more interest rates than what is now being offered by the nationalised and scheduled banks. The interests rate of some of the banks, including the State Bank of India, State Bank of Travancore, the Federal Bank and Canara Bank range from 4 per cent to 9 per cent for NRI SB Deposit, NRI Term Deposit and NR (Non-Repartiable) Deposits. The new bank will also help boost the credit deposit ratio in the State. As of now, the ratio lies in the range of 40 - 44 per cent without much significant value.
