THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has flagged Rs1,173.29 crore in outstanding government and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) loans, share capital and related dues from cooperative societies in Kerala as of March 31, 2024, pointing to serious shortcomings in the recovery of public money.
The outstanding amount includes Rs519.62 crore in principal, Rs589.10 crore in interest, Rs64.03 crore in penal interest and Rs0.54 crore in dividend, according to CAG Report No. 11 of 2025, which examined the regulation of cooperative societies in the state.
The audit found that no repayment had been made in 315 cases involving Rs492.94 crore among the cases examined in selected districts. It also found discrepancies between outstanding loan and share figures reported by district-level offices and those furnished by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies.
Kannur accounted for the largest share of outstanding dues, at Rs874.95 crore as of March 2024. The major amounts involved included dues from the Kerala State Cooperative Hospital Complex and Centre for Advanced Medical Service, RUBCO, Kerala State Agro-Co-operative Ltd and RAIDCO. Recovery action or requests for writing off dues were in progress in these cases, the report said.
Weak recovery mechanism
The CAG observed that delays in recovering government dues, despite provisions under the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act, had weakened the recovery mechanism. The Act provides for recovery of sums due to the government through procedures similar to those used for recovering arrears of public revenue.
The report also identified significant arrears in two cooperative-sector funds. Of Rs220.71 crore due to the Kerala Cooperative Professional Education Fund as of March 2024, only Rs79.99 crore had been collected, leaving Rs140.72 crore pending. The audit further found that the fund's accounts had not been audited since its constitution in March 2016 and that annual reports had not been submitted for eight years.
Separately, Rs35.44 crore remained outstanding towards the Cooperative Member Relief Fund, including penal interest, for the period from 2019-20 to 2023-24.
The CAG attributed the broader problems to weaknesses in monitoring and oversight, including delays in pursuing recovery and inadequate follow-up on audit observations. It called for a system to track government assistance and ensure that cooperative societies repay outstanding dues within the prescribed timelines.
