Govt raises refund amounts cap for Sahara Group depositors to Rs 50,000

The government has raised the cap on refund amounts for small depositors of the Sahara Group Cooperative Societies to Rs 50,000, up from the previous limit of Rs 10,000, a senior cooperation ministry official said on Wednesday.

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

"With an increase in the limit of refund amount to Rs 50,000, about Rs 1,000 crore payment will be made in the next 10 days," the official said.

Last week, the cap on refund amount for small depositors was raised to Rs 50,000 each from Rs 10,000, the official said.

The government is vetting the claims of depositors carefully before releasing the refund.

Following a Supreme Court order, the CRCS-Sahara refund portal was launched on July 18, 2023, for submission of claims by genuine depositors of Sahara Group's four multi-state cooperative societies for refund of their legitimate deposits.

The societies are Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, Lucknow; Saharayn Universal Multipurpose Society Ltd, Bhopal; Humara India Credit Cooperative Society Ltd, Kolkata; and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd, Hyderabad.

In accordance with a Supreme Court order dated March 29, 2023, an amount of Rs 5,000 crore was transferred from the Sebi-Sahara Refund Account to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) on May 19, 2023.

The disbursement of money digitally is being monitored by Justice R Subhash Reddy, a Supreme Court judge.