Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, July 18: Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched the ‘CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal’ to help over 10 crore depositors of Sahara Group to claim their money back in 45 days, reports The Indian Express.
Terming this a historic moment, Shah said depositors will get their refund in 45 days after registering themselves on the portal. “The process of returning the money of depositors, which was stuck in four cooperative societies of Sahara Group, has started with the launch of Sahara Refund Portal,” the Union Home Minister said.
On March 29, the Centre said the money will be returned to 10 crore investors of the four cooperative societies within nine months. This was followed by a Supreme Court order directing the transfer of Rs 5,000 crore from the Sahara-Sebi refund account to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS).
Here’s all you need to know about the CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal launch:
Around 2.5 crore people have deposits of up to Rs 30,000 in the four cooperative societies namely Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, Saharayan Universal Multipurpose Society Ltd, Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Ltd and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd. The refund portal has been developed by a subsidiary of IFCI Ltd, for submission of legitimate claims by the depositors of these cooperative societies.
The portal was launched today by Amit Shah and depositors can visit the website, at mocrefund.crcs.gov.in, to claim their money back.
How much money will be refunded?
The Ministry of Cooperation in a statement dated July 17 said, “To address the grievances of genuine members/depositors of Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies for payment of their legitimate deposits, the Ministry of Cooperation had filed an application in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. The Hon’ble Supreme Court vide its order dated 29th March, 2023 had directed that Rs. 5000 Crores be transferred out of the ‘Sahara-SEBI Refund Account’, to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) for disbursement against the legitimate dues of the genuine depositors of the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies.”
Amit Shah today said that depositors, to get started with, would get up to Rs 10,000 refund, and subsequently the amount would be enhanced for those who have invested higher amounts.
He added that in the first phase, the corpus of Rs 5,000 crore would be able to take care of the needs of 1.7 crore depositors.
“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.
How to claim the money back from the CRCS-Sahara refund portal?
According to Amit Shah, depositors need two important things: Aadhaar registration with mobile and Aadhaar-linking with the bank account where refund is to be deposited.
Depositors will also require to provide receipt details, and that they will need to download a form, fill it and re-upload it on the portal for processing of the refund.
Shah said that the Common Services Centre would also help and guide depositors for online registration on the portal for refund.
