Amit Shah, the minister of cooperation, on Tuesday unveiled the “CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal,” which aims to repay the deposits of thousands of people in four cooperative societies owned by the Sahara Group in around 45 days.
He called it a historic occasion and said it was the first time depositors had received reimbursements in a case involving various governmental entities, each of which had carried out a seizure.
Shah gave the depositors the assurance that their money could not be stopped at this time and that they would receive a return 45 days after enrolling on the portal.
The government had stated on March 29 that the 10 crore investors in the four cooperative societies will receive their money back in 9 months.
The announcement came after the Supreme Court ordered that the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) receive the transfer of Rs 5,000 crore from the Sahara-Sebi reimbursement account.
He stated that depositors would first receive a return of up to Rs 10,000 and that for individuals who had made larger investments, the amount would later increase.
According to him, the Rs 5,000 crore corpus will be sufficient to meet the needs of 1.7 crore depositors in the initial phase.
The four cooperative societies, Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, Saharayan Universal Multipurpose Society Ltd, Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd, have deposits from almost 2.5 crore people totaling up to Rs 30,000.
“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.
