Gujarat government limits expensive vehicle purchases for cooperative bodies, increases emoluments for members, streamlines procurement through e-tendering.
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Bloomberg
Discouraging “cash-rich” coooperative bodies in Gujarat from indulging in “unnecessary” purchase of “expensive vehicles” for their respective chairpersons and senior office bearers, Gujarat government has imposed a ceiling on the purchase, limiting it to vehicles similar to Innova Crysta, that currently costs between an estimated ₹22.5 lakh to ₹30 lakh.
At the same time, Gujarat government also hiked the emoluments given by cooperative bodies to members as “gifts” by over 150 per cent, and asked the cooperatives to procure these gift items through e-tendering. “Till now there was no limit on the type or cost of vehicles purchased for chairman or office bearers of a cooperative body in Gujarat. These office bearers are in these institutions to serve the farmers or cooperative members, and so we have imposed a limit on the type of vehicles that can be purchased,” Jagdish Panchal, Minister of State for Cooperation (Independent Charge), Gujarat government told businessline.
When asked about the limit imposed on vehicle purchase, the minister said, “If the purchase is for a chairman of a large cooperative body, then the vehicle purchased should be similar to the top model of an Innova Crysta. It is in line with the allocations made for officials of the state government.” There are over 89000 small and big cooperative bodies in Gujarat and the new regulations will be applicable to all the entities including those in dairy, banking and agricultural sectors. The regulations are meant to curb purchase of “unnecessary” and “expensive” vehicles and thus benefit the smaller members of these bodies.
The government has also hiked the emoluments that cooperative bodies used to give its members as “gifts” between 66-150 per cent. “Apart from the annual dividend, the cooperatives also used to give gifts to members. These gifts are given from the profits made by the cooperative bodies. These bodies have been coming to the government seeking a hike in emoluments and as these gifts are meant for the members and so we have permitted the same. We have asked the bodies to procure these gifts through e-tendering to prevent any possible irregularities, thus streamlining the process,” Panchal added.
For primary cooperative societies, the limit to give annual gifts has been raised from ₹750 to ₹1250. Similarly, for taluka level bodies, the amount has been raised from ₹1000 to ₹2500, for district level it has been raised from ₹3000 to ₹5000 and for state level bodies, the limits have been raised from ₹6000 to ₹10000. In the past, the Gujarat government had hiked the annual dividend limit for members of cooperative bodies from 15 percent to 20 percent.
According to the state government data, the number of cooperative agricultural societies in the Gujarat stood at 39633 at the end of the year 2023-2024, while the number of Non-Agricultural societies, which included 19 Cooperative Banks, stood at 49568.
Published on April 25, 2025