Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said that more than Rs772.44 million has already been refunded to the victims of cooperatives.

Addressing the meeting of the House of Representatives on Thursday, Dahal stated that 59,587 individuals, affected by cooperatives, had filed complaints claiming embezzlement of their deposits worth Rs36.28 billion. Of the amount, the government has paid back Rs772.44 million so far.

The prime minister added that the government had declared 20 different cooperatives as ‘crisis-ridden’ and that the process to refund the affected depositors was being facilitated by the Crisis-ridden Cooperative Management Committee.

Dahal also mentioned that the efforts for a separate legal procedure to establish an independent regulatory body for the protection of the cooperative savings had been initiated.

“The government is aware of the cooperative problems and is serious about addressing them. Various efforts have been made to implement the suggestions of the high-level task force and the agreements reached with the cooperative victims under the coordination of the National Planning Commission last year,” he said.

Prime Minister Dahal also said that a committee had been formed at the provincial and local levels to solve the problems of those affected by the cooperatives.

A law to establish an authority to regulate and supervise large-scale cooperatives is also being drafted, Dahal added.

Acknowledging the contribution of cooperatives to the country’s economy, the prime minister also emphasised that the interests of the members of the cooperatives should also be addressed as per the values and practices of the cooperatives.

“Not all cooperatives are in trouble. Many have helped in uplifting living standards of people while operating based on established international practices and as per the law,” Dahal said.

He added that despite the significant increase in the number of cooperatives, there were plenty of shortcomings regarding qualitative improvement.

The government is serious about these issues, Dahal said.