New Delhi, Jun 29 (PTI) Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday hailed the government's decision to computerise Primary Agriculture Credit Societies (PACS), saying the move will improve their efficiencies and also enable them to become a nodal centre for providing other services like crop insurance.

The Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved Rs 2,516 crore for computerisation of functional 63,000 PACS aimed at promoting financial inclusion. At present, majority of PACS are not computerised and still functioning manually, resulting in inefficiency and lack of trust in them.

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In an official statement, Shah said the government is committed to bring reforms in the cooperative sector.

The minister said the PACS are the smallest unit in the cooperative sector and their "computerisation will prove to be a boon for the sector." He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this visionary decision.

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Shah said these 63,000 PACS will be computerised at a cost of Rs 2,516 crore, which will benefit about 13 crore small and marginal farmers.

"In this digital age, the decision of computerisation of PACS will increase their transparency, reliability and efficiency and will also facilitate the accounting of multipurpose PACS," Shah said.

The Cabinet's decision, Shah said, will also help PACS to become a nodal centre for providing various services such as Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS) and Crop Insurance Scheme (PMFBY).

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