Sahara small depositors get some relief as govt raises refund limit to ₹50,000 from ₹10,000. Details here

The central government has increased the refund amount limit for small depositors of Sahara Group Cooperative Societies to ₹50,000 from ₹10,000, PTI reported on Wednesday, citing a senior cooperation ministry official.

"With an increase in the limit of the refund amount to ₹50,000, about ₹1,000 crore payment will be made in the next 10 days," the report quoted the senior official as saying.

The government raised the limit to ₹50,000 for small depositors last week, according to the report.

The government has released ₹370 crore to 4.29 lakh depositors of Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies through the CRCS-Sahara refund portal so far.

The government is critically examining the claims of depositors before disbursing the refund amount.

Following a Supreme Court directive issued on March 29, 2023, an amount of ₹5,000 crore was transferred to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) from the Sebi-Sahara Refund Account on May 19, 2023.

The CRCS-Sahara refund portal was introduced on July 18, 2023. It aims to allow genuine depositors of Sahara Group's four multi-state cooperative societies to submit claims for refunds of their deposits.

Refund of claims examined by judge

The refund of claims is digitally examined by Justice R Subhash Reddy, a Supreme Court judge.

The cooperative societies under this initiative include Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, Lucknow; Saharayn Universal Multipurpose Society Ltd, Bhopal; Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd, Hyderabad and Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, Kolkata.

In September 2020, the CRCS requested a probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) to look into investments in these four cooperatives linked to the Sahara Group.

CRCS has got almost 15,000 complaints against the group. It is alleged that these cooperative societies have raised about ₹86,000 crore, according to a Mint report on November 15, 2023.

Recently, Sahara Group has been in the news as the Supreme Court has directed the company to reveal information on its current executives, shareholders and its unencumbered properties that may raise up to ₹10,000 crore, Mint reported on September 4.