Lalitpur. Minister for Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, Prof. Dr. KATHMANDU: National Cooperative Regulatory Authority (NCRA) should also regulate cooperatives in the same way Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has regulated the banks.

Speaking at a programme organized by the NRA on the occasion of the first anniversary of the National Cooperative Regulatory Authority (NCA) here today, he said problems have surfaced in the cooperatives after the cooperatives started operating in a way that would be similar to the working area of banks.

“There was a problem in cooperatives after the indiscriminate accumulation of savings, a cooperatives should not have left more than the authorized capital of the commercial banks while collecting savings, the then government should have paid attention, now millions of savers would not have to come out on the streets, therefore, the state should take the responsibility of all those under the state, the role of cooperatives is very important to make Nepal’s economy dynamic,” Minister Ingnam said.

He said that not only the savers of the cooperatives but also the borrowers of the cooperatives have been suffering, adding that it was a big problem that the debtors of the cooperatives were not found in the records even after paying the money. “In the past, the cooperatives faced problems due to irresponsibility of the regulatory bodies. “It has become difficult to resolve the problem at a time when 23 problematic cooperatives have liabilities of Rs 45 billion and assets of Rs 30 billion,” he said. He said that the regulatory bodies of the past state were more responsible than the cooperatives operators for spoiling the cooperatives.

“Even if the good cooperatives are not in trouble due to self-regulation, the cooperatives are being ignored by the regulatory body of the cooperatives to deposit money and invest in the company,” he said.

Stressing that the state should make arrangement of additional human resources for increasing the efficiency of the Cooperative Regulatory Authority, he said that the cooperatives should contribute to bring the state’s economy in rhythm through effective regulation of cooperatives.