Computerization of PACS Project

What is the PACS Computerization Scheme?

Computerization of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) is a Centrally Sponsored project of the Ministry of Cooperation, approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on 29 June 2022. The project takes India's village-level credit societies off paper ledgers and puts them on a single Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform used nationwide.

A PACS is the bottom tier of India's three-tier short-term cooperative credit structure: PACS at the village level, District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) at the district level, and State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) at the state level. Until this project, most PACS kept members' loan and deposit records in handwritten registers, which made reconciliation with the DCCB slow and audit difficult.

The project was originally approved with a total outlay of Rs 2,516 crore, including a central share of Rs 1,528 crore, to cover about 63,000 functional PACS over five years. The Ministry of Cooperation has since revised the outlay up to about Rs 2,925 crore, and proposals for 67,930 PACS across 30 states and union territories have been sanctioned.

What does a PACS actually get under the scheme?

Central assistance is pegged at approximately Rs 3.91 lakh per PACS. That amount is not a cash grant to the society. It is spent on its behalf on four things:

• Hardware. A desktop computer, a multi-function device for printing and scanning, a UPS, a webcam, a biometric scanner, an external hard disk, a tablet or mobile device, a passbook printer and the associated electrical fittings, with five years of annual maintenance built in.
• Digitisation of legacy data; converting years of handwritten member, loan, deposit and share-capital records into the ERP database.
• ERP software and customisation, a common national application, customised by the state's System Integrator to fit that state's Cooperative Societies Act, rules and product terms.
• Support, training and connectivity, including a VPN link so the PACS connects securely to its DCCB and, through the DCCB and StCB, to NABARD.

The ERP runs 22 functional modules covering the full business of a society, deposits, short-term and medium-term credit, input sales, procurement, accounting, audit and member management. Once a PACS goes live, member transactions generate printed receipts and updated passbooks the same day rather than being posted to a register later.

Who is eligible for the PACS Computerization Scheme?

Eligible:

• Functional PACS registered under a state Cooperative Societies Act and actively doing business.
• PACS affiliated to a DCCB or a State Cooperative Bank, since ERP integration runs through that channel.
• PACS in states and union territories that have signed up to the project to 30 states and UTs have sanctioned proposals so far.
• In several states, other primary cooperatives such as Large Area Multipurpose Societies (LAMPS) and Farmers Service Societies (FSS) are treated on par with PACS where the state includes them in its proposal.

Cannot apply / not eligible:

• Individual farmers, members, employees or agents cannot apply. There is no citizen application form for this scheme, and no personal cash benefit.
• Dormant, defunct or under-liquidation PACS are not eligible. The project covers functional societies only; states are separately expected to liquidate dead societies and register new multipurpose PACS in their place.
• Cooperative societies that are not part of the short-term credit structure — for example standalone consumer, housing or labour cooperatives, are not covered by this project.
• PACS in a state that has not submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Cooperation cannot be covered until the state does so.

How to apply for PACS computerization

The route is institutional, from state to Centre. A society does not upload anything to a portal.

1. State or UT cooperation department prepares a proposal listing the functional PACS to be covered, checked against the National Cooperative Database and DCCB records.
2. The proposal goes to the Ministry of Cooperation for sanction. Once sanctioned, the state's share under the 60:40 pattern (90:10 for North Eastern and hilly states) is committed in the state budget.
3. The PACS Board passes a resolution accepting computerization, agreeing to adopt the common national ERP and to the service level agreement terms, and nominates staff for training.
4. The state appoints a System Integrator, which visits the society, sets up the hardware, digitises the legacy registers and configures the ERP to state rules.
5. PACS staff are trained on the ERP modules by the System Integrator and NABARD's district teams.
6. The PACS is onboarded and then declared "go-live", at which point daily business runs on the ERP and manual registers are retired.
7. The DCCB reconciles PACS transactions through the ERP link, and the data flows onward to the StCB and NABARD.

If your society has not been covered, the correct first stop is the District Central Cooperative Bank and then the district or state registrar of cooperative societies, not the Ministry of Cooperation in Delhi.

Who implements the project?

NABARD is the project implementing agency and project manager. NABARD onboarded the National Level PACS Software Vendor (NLPSV), which developed the common ERP modules. At state level, a System Integrator appointed by the state handles rollout, legacy data migration and customisation. State cooperation departments, StCBs and DCCBs carry the coordination load on the ground, and the Ministry of Cooperation sanctions and releases the central share.

Central assistance is released in tranches against progress. As reported by the Ministry, more than Rs 1,000 crore of central assistance had been released for the project, split between state governments and NABARD.

How to check whether your PACS is computerised

1. Ask the PACS secretary or CEO whether the society has been "onboarded" and whether it has been declared go-live on the ERP. These are two different milestones: onboarding means the software is installed, go-live means daily business runs on it.
2. Check whether you get a printed receipt for a deposit or a loan repayment, and whether your passbook is machine-printed. Both are signs the ERP is live.
3. Ask the DCCB branch that your PACS is affiliated to; the DCCB holds the district-level status list.
4. Check the state cooperation department's website, since several states publish district-wise PACS computerization progress.

What progress has the project made?

Coverage has moved steadily. Proposals for 67,930 PACS from 30 states and union territories have been sanctioned, hardware has been procured by 30 states and UTs, and more than 61,000 PACS have been onboarded on the ERP software, with a large share already declared go-live and operating as e-PACS. The Ministry of Cooperation has indicated that manual record keeping at covered societies should end by 31 March 2027, the last year of the project period 2022-23 to 2026-27.

Exact live counts change month to month. Treat any single figure you read, including the ones above, as a snapshot and check the current number on cooperation.gov.in or in the latest Parliament reply before quoting it.

Why does computerization get delayed at a PACS?

• Legacy records are incomplete or illegible, so the System Integrator cannot migrate member and loan data cleanly. This is the single most common cause of delay.
• The state's share of funding has not been released, holding up hardware procurement.
• Poor internet connectivity at the village, since the ERP needs a working VPN connection to the DCCB.
• Staff shortage or turnover at the PACS, so nobody trained on the ERP is left in the office.
• The society is dormant or under liquidation, which makes it ineligible outright rather than merely delayed.
• Pending audit, which stalls the state's confirmation that the society is functional.

The fix in almost every case runs through the DCCB and the district cooperative officer, who can escalate to the state nodal officer for the project.

What does computerization change for a farmer member?

For a member of a computerised PACS, the practical differences are concrete:

• Loan applications and sanctions are recorded digitally, so processing at the DCCB is faster than the earlier register-and-post cycle.
• Deposits, withdrawals and repayments generate an immediate printed receipt and a machine-printed passbook entry.
• Member records, share capital and outstanding dues are visible in one place, which reduces disputes at audit time.
• Because the ERP integrates with national systems, a computerised PACS is far better placed to run add-on businesses such as a Common Service Centre, a PM Kisan Samridhi Kendra, a fair price shop or a Jan Aushadhi Kendra under the model bye-laws.

Farmer members pay nothing for computerization. No PACS employee, System Integrator staffer or agent is entitled to collect a fee from a member for "digitising your account".

Help and grievance redressal

• District Central Cooperative Bank: first point of contact for a PACS whose rollout has stalled.
• District or state registrar of cooperative societies, for eligibility, audit and society status questions.
• NABARD regional office, for ERP, System Integrator and technical issues, since NABARD is the project manager.
• Ministry of Cooperation, Atal Akshay Urja Bhawan, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110003, and the scheme page on cooperation.gov.in.
• CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in for a formal written grievance.

No dedicated toll-free helpline number has been published for this project, so be cautious of any number circulated as a "PACS computerization helpline".