Union Minister Amit Shah Launches 'CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal' To Help Crores Of Depositors

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New Delhi: Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched 'CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal', aimed at refund of hard earned money of crores of depositors in four cooperative societies of Sahara Group in about 45 days. Terming this a historic moment, he said this is the first time when depositors are getting refunds in a case where multiple government agencies are involved and each one has done a seizure.

Shah assured the depositors that no one can stop their money now and that they will get the refund in 45 days after registering on the portal. On March 29, the government had said money will be returned to 10 crore investors of the four cooperative societies within 9 months. The announcement followed a Supreme Court order directing transfer of Rs 5,000 crore from Sahara-Sebi refund account to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS).

To begin with, he said, depositors would get up to Rs 10,000 refund and subsequently the amount would be enhanced for those who have invested higher amounts. The corpus of Rs 5,000 crore would be able to take care of the needs of 1.7 crore depositors in the first phase, he said.

About 2.5 crore people have deposits of up to Rs 30,000 in the four cooperative societies namely Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, Saharayan Universal Multipurpose Society Ltd, Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Ltd and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd.

"Once the Rs 5,000 crore is utilised, we will approach the Supreme Court and request them to release more money so that the total refund of other depositors with higher amounts are processed," Shah said.

The portal is developed by a subsidiary of IFCI, for submission of legitimate claims by the depositors of these cooperative societies. Shah said there are two important requirements: Aadhaar registration with mobile and Aadhaar-linking with the bank account where refund is to be deposited.

In this endeavour, he said, Common Services Centre would also help and guide depositors for online registration on the portal for refund. To address the grievances of the members/depositors, the ministry had filed an application in the Supreme Court. In March, the Supreme Court had directed that Rs 5,000 crore be transferred out of the 'Sahara-Sebi Refund Account', to CRCS for disbursement against the legitimate dues of the depositors.