Finance Assistance to PACS for Computerization and Integration of PACS through Core Banking System with District Cooperative Banks

What is the PACS computerisation assistance in Gujarat?

Finance Assistance to PACS for Computerization and Integration of PACS through Core Banking System with District Cooperative Banks is the Gujarat leg of the national Computerisation of PACS project. In Gujarat the scheme is run by the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department through the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, with the Gujarat State Co-operative Bank and the District Central Co-operative Banks acting as the delivery chain and NABARD as the national implementing agency.

Primary Agricultural Credit Societies are the last mile of rural credit. A PACS lends crop loans, supplies fertiliser and seed, and in many villages runs the fair price shop. Most of them, until recently, kept books by hand. Manual ledgers meant slow loan sanction, no reliable member data, no link to the District Cooperative Bank's own core banking system and audit backlogs running into years. Finance Assistance to PACS for Computerization exists to close that gap by moving every functional society onto a common ERP-based national software and connecting it, through the District Cooperative Bank and the Gujarat State Co-operative Bank, to NABARD.

According to the Ministry of Cooperation guidelines, the national project covers 63,000 functional PACS with a total financial outlay of Rs 2,516 crore. The Government of India share is Rs 1,528 crore, state governments together contribute Rs 736 crore and NABARD Rs 252 crore.

What the scheme is trying to fix

• Bring transparency, accuracy and consistency into PACS accounts through one accounting and management information system instead of dozens of local ones.
• Cut the time a farmer waits between applying for a Kisan Credit Card crop loan and getting the money.
• Give the District Cooperative Bank a live view of each society's lending, recovery and deposits rather than a quarterly paper return.
• Clear the audit backlog, because a computerised society generates its trial balance automatically.
• Let a PACS diversify into services such as fair price shop billing, common service centre work and insurance, all on the same terminal.

How much assistance does each PACS receive?

The approved unit cost is Rs 3,91,369 per PACS. It is shared as follows:

The society does not receive this money as cash. The amount is spent on its behalf on hardware, the ERP software licence, digitisation of old records, connectivity, training and a defined period of maintenance and support. Hardware and software are procured centrally so that every society in the state runs the same version and the District Cooperative Bank sees identical data formats from all of them.

Note that the Government of India and State shares work out to a 60:40 split of the non-NABARD portion of the unit cost, which is why some documents describe the scheme as "60:40 centre-state" while the full unit cost also carries the NABARD share.

Who is eligible and who is not eligible?

A society can be selected if:

• It is a registered Primary Agricultural Credit Society, LAMPS or FSS in Gujarat and is functional, not dormant or under liquidation.
• Its statutory audit is complete up to the last financial year.
• It has office premises, either owned by the society or held on a valid lease, where the equipment can be installed and kept secure.
• It has a Secretary in position and at least one staff member who is computer literate or willing to be trained.
• The village has usable telecom or data network coverage, since the ERP is a connected system.
• Its managing committee has passed a resolution agreeing to join the project and to maintain the system afterwards.

You are not eligible if:

• You are an individual farmer, member or depositor. Finance Assistance to PACS for Computerization has no personal benefit and no individual application form. Nobody should pay an agent to "get your name added".
• The society is dormant, defunct, under liquidation or de-registered.
• The society's audit is in arrears beyond the last financial year.
• The society is a non-credit cooperative outside the PACS, LAMPS and FSS definition, for example a milk union or a housing society.
• The society has already been computerised under an earlier NABARD or state scheme and is running on the common ERP.

How to apply for PACS computerisation assistance

Finance Assistance to PACS for Computerization has no citizen-facing online form. Selection runs through the cooperative structure, in this order.

1. Pass a managing committee resolution at the PACS agreeing to join the computerisation project, nominating the Secretary as the contact person and confirming that the society will maintain the system afterwards.
2. Complete the pending statutory audit and obtain the audit certificate up to the last completed financial year. Selection lists are built from audited, functional societies, so this step usually decides whether the society makes the cut.
3. Submit the proposal to your District Central Co-operative Bank, attaching the registration certificate, audited accounts, proof of premises, the Secretary's appointment record, a staff computer-literacy declaration and confirmation that network coverage is available at the premises.
4. Wait for the District Level Implementation and Monitoring Committee (DLIMC) to verify the society and place it on the district shortlist.
5. Await State Level Implementation and Monitoring Committee (SLIMC) approval, after which the consolidated Gujarat list moves to the Gujarat State Co-operative Bank and then to NABARD for release of funds.
6. Prepare the premises and the staff once selected, provide a lockable room, an earthed power point and an internet connection, and send staff for the training run through the Gujarat State Co-operative Union's certified trainers.
7. Sign off on installation and data migration, verifying that member records, share capital, deposits and loan balances have been migrated correctly before the society goes live on the ERP.

How can a society check the status of its proposal?

There is no public status-tracking page for this scheme. A society should follow up in the same order the file moves:

• First with the branch and head office of its District Central Co-operative Bank, which holds the district file.
• Then with the District Registrar of Co-operative Societies, who sits on the DLIMC.
• Finally with the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Gujarat, under the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, for state-level clearance.

Keep the inward number and date of the proposal submitted to the District Cooperative Bank. That reference is what every later office asks for.

Why do proposals get rejected?

• Audit in arrears. The single largest reason. A society two or three years behind on audit will not be shortlisted.
• No secure premises. Societies operating from a shared room, a temple hall or the Secretary's house cannot take delivery of hardware.
• No Secretary in position. A society run only by honorary office bearers has nobody accountable for daily data entry.
• Poor or absent connectivity at the village, since the ERP has to sync with the District Cooperative Bank.
• Dormancy. Societies with negligible lending in recent years are treated as non-functional.
• Incomplete legacy records, which make data migration impossible without a prior clean-up of member and loan ledgers.

Each of these is fixable. Completing the audit, regularising the Secretary's post and passing a fresh committee resolution is usually enough to get a society onto the next district list.

What changes for the farmer after computerisation?

A member of a computerised PACS gets a printed, system-generated passbook and receipt instead of a handwritten entry, faster sanction of Kisan Credit Card crop loans because the society's limit position is visible to the District Cooperative Bank in real time, and accurate interest subvention claims. The society itself can add fair price shop billing, common service centre services and insurance distribution on the same system. None of this requires the farmer to apply anywhere.

Where to raise a grievance

• Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Gujarat, under the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Sachivalaya, Gandhinagar.
• District Registrar of Co-operative Societies in your district, the first point of contact for a society whose proposal has stalled.
• Your District Central Co-operative Bank, for questions on hardware delivery, data migration and training schedules.
• NABARD Gujarat Regional Office, Ahmedabad, for issues relating to release of the NABARD share.

No fee is payable by a society at any stage of selection, and no vendor appointed under the project may bill the society for the hardware or the ERP licence covered by the Rs 3,91,369 unit cost.