New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday that under a computerisation project, 61,869 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies have completed digitisation of their legacy records, and 60,424 PACSs have already been onboarded on ePACS Software.

“Day-end stage has been achieved by 57,092 PACSs. In 38,982 PACSs, On-system Audits have been successfully completed, ensuring compliance and operational integrity,” the Minister said in reply to a question in Lok Sabha.

Minister Shah said that for better monitoring, access to the project management dashboard and customisation tools have been provided to all stakeholders.

Highlighting gains from the measures taken by the Ministry, he said, “The ePACS software has brought transparency in accounting and operation by capturing all aspects of the PACS business and generating financial statements in keeping with CAS-MIS accounting norms. It provides for On-system Audits, bringing in accountability.”

Sharing details on steps taken to link co-operative banks with Aadhaar-enabled payment services along with the extent of coverage achieved so far, the Minister said, “The UIDAI has reduced license fee for onboarding Cooperative Banks to ‘Aadhaar Enabled Payment System’ (AePS) by linking it to the number of transactions”.

He said Cooperative financial institutions are now eligible to get the facility free of cost for the first three months of the pre-production phase.

“Also, the UIDAI on August 1, 2025, has introduced a new framework for onboarding of Cooperative Banks on AePS. Now, only State Cooperative Banks (StCBs) are required to onboard as Authentication User Agency/ KYC User Agency (AUA/KUA), District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) will be allowed to use it through State Cooperative Bank as sub-AUA/KUA,” he said.

As per the information available, a total of 11 StCBs, 52 DCCBs and 6 Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) are onboarded on AePS, he said.

Cooperation Minister Shah said to improve cyber security, the Ministry has requested the Registrar of Cooperative Societies of all states/union territories, along with the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies, to take immediate necessary action for onboarding of all Cooperative banks under their jurisdiction on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). As per information available, a total of 23 StCBs, 85 DCCBs and 57 UCBs are onboarded on I4C.

–IANS

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