On Tuesday, July 18, 2023, Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched the CRCS–Sahara Refund portal in New Delhi following a Supreme Court order to refund the money to the depositors of the Sahara Group's cooperative societies.
On March 29, 2023, the apex court directed the transfer of Rs 5,000 crores from the Sahara-SEBI Refund Account to the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies (CRCS) for disbursing them to the genuine depositors in the Sahara Group of Cooperative Societies.
Who Can Make The Claim?
The depositors in the four cooperative societies of the Sahara group: Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited, Saharayan Universal Multipurpose Society Limited, Hamara India Credit Cooperative Society Limited, and Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited, can apply for a refund through this portal, which can also be accessed at https://mocrefund.crcs.gov.in/ or through the Cooperation Ministry website.
For Sahara Credit Cooperative Society Limited, Saharayan Universal Multipurpose Society Limited, and Hamara India Credit Cooperative Society Limited: The eligible depositors are those who made the deposit before March 22, 2022.
For Stars Multipurpose Cooperative Society Limited: The eligible depositors are those who made the deposits before March 29, 2023.
What Will You Need To Claim A Refund?
One must have the membership and deposit account numbers to make a claim. Besides that, the depositors must have an Aadhaar-linked mobile number, an Aadhaar-linked bank account, PAN Card (if the claim amount is Rs 50,000 or above), and a deposit certificate or passbook.
While claiming the refund, the PAN Card and the Deposit certificate or passbook must be attached along with the claim request form.
How To Apply For A Refund?
First, the depositor must register on the portal to apply for the refund.
Step 1: Open the CRCS Sahara Refund Portal, and on the home page, click on the tab 'Deposit Registration'.
Step 2: Fill in your Aadhaar card details (last four digits), a mobile number linked with Aadhaar. Then, click on 'Get OTP'.
Step 3: Once received, write the OTP in the box and click 'Verify OTP'. The registration is complete.
The next step is submitting the claim. Follow these subsequent steps to submit your claim for a refund.
Step 1: On the portal's home page, click on the 'Depositor Login' tab.
Step 2: Fill in the details like Aadhaar number, mobile number, and OTP to log in.
Step 3: Fill in the deposit details from your deposit certificate. If you have more than one deposit, fill details of all the deposits one by one in a single form and verify it carefully because once submitted, the details cannot be altered later. Also, no further claim can be added after the form is submitted. So, be very careful while filling out the claim form.
Step 4: Once you verify the details in the claim form, download it and take a printout.
Step 5: Affix a recent photo of the depositor on the form at the specific place and sign it across and on the form.
Step 6: Next, you need to scan the form, upload it on the site and submit the claim form.
After the claim form submission, the acknowledgement number will appear on the screen, and it will also be sent to the registered mobile number of the depositor.
Note that the physical form submission is not acceptable to claim a refund. This refund process is online 'end-to-end'. So, the form has to be scanned and submitted online only.
When Will You Get The Refund?
Sahara Society will check and process the claim within 30 days from the date of claim submission, and then CRCS will verify and process the claim in the next 15 days. So, it will take 45 days for verification and issuing the refund. The refund will be directly credited to the Aadhaar-linked bank account. In case of any doubt, one can call the toll-free numbers 1800-103-6891 or 1800-103-6893
