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Primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS) that form the base of the cooperative credit structure are now set to play a major role in financial inclusion, as the South Canara District Central Cooperative (SCDCC) Bank has introduced the facility of RuPay Kisan Credit Card and RuPay Debit Card for them.
While SCDCC Bank offers the RuPay card facility, around 600 point-of-sale (POS) instruments in PACS and their branches help transact the RuPay card.
RuPay is a domestic card scheme launched by National Payments Corporation of India. It enables electronic payments at banks and financial institutions in the country. VISA and MasterCard are the foreign payment gateways
Launching RuPay card facility here, MN Rajendra Kumar, President of SCDCC Bank, claimed that his bank is the first district central cooperative bank to introduce the facility of RuPay cards to PACS. (PACS, numbering 166, are affiliated to SCDCC Bank)
GR Chintala, Chief General Manager of Nabard, Bangalore, told Business Line that Raigad Central Cooperative Bank in Maharashtra has already issued RuPay kisan credit card.
He said, probably, SCDCC Bank is the first one where even PACS were taken on board. In Raigad, the accounts of PACS were shifted to the district central cooperative bank.
In the case of SCDCC Bank, the identity of PACS was retained. The transactions done by PACS are reflected in the books of central cooperative bank.
Nabard has extended ₹1.46 crore for infrastructure such as RuPay cards, point-of-sales terminals (which are used for swiping cards to do transactions), etc.
Rajendra Kumar said that all the 166 PACS and their branches will be brought under CBS (core-banking solution) network by the end of December. SCDCC Bank, which has 63 branches, implemented the CBS in 2012.
Explaining the benefits of RuPay cards to customers, Chintala said apart from RuPay there are two other foreign payment gateways. Now whatever transactions the customers do, the foreign payment gateways debit around Rs 6 per transaction. A lot of money is going out of the country through this.
In the case of RuPay, around 40 paisa is charged per transaction, and the money is retained in India, he said.
Rajendra Kumar said that the customers of SCDCC Bank and PACS, who have RuPay card, can use it for transactions in any part of the country.
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