Mandi board reluctant on fee hike; key meet on Oct 11

ONE OF THE OPTIONS IS TO LEVY THE 1% HIKE IN FEE ONLY ON WHEAT AND PADDY CROPS

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government move to increase the market and rural development fees on farm produce sale from the current 2% to 3% — to mop up an additional ~900 crore a year — has received cold response from the Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board, or mandi board.

The August 24 decision of the state cabinet awaits clearance from the mandi board, whose directors will discuss the matter on October 11. There is opposition to the move from state farmers, and the mandi board is at the centre of it, because it manages procurement of grain sand other produce through 1,700 man dis.

The state at present earns Rs 1,800 crore a year from the fees. The levy is lower in Rajasthan (1.6%) ,Uttar Pradesh (2.4%), and Madhya Pradesh (0.2%).

One of the options on the man di board’ s mind is to hike the fee only for the dominant crops, wheat and pad dy .“We will implement the government’ s decision, but we will see that farmers’ interests are not harmed,” said the board’s chairman, former Congress minister L al Singh .“In the board meeting of October 11, we will decide whether to implement the hike on all crops or just wheat and paddy.”

Balbir Singh Rajewal, president of a faction of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, said the enhancement is unjustified because, “though the fees are levied on the purchaser of the farmers’ pro- du ce, the burden actually falls on the farmers”. He added, “This will lead to increase in the costs and dissuades traders from buying from the state,” he said.

The funds collected as fees go to Punjab Rural Development Board for infrastructure, including roads, which, the government argues, is for benefit of farmers.

However, with the cotton crop ready, farmers in south-west Punjab prefer to take it to Sri Gang an agar( Ra j as than) and Dabwali (Haryana). Next, basmati growers are worried and demanding a roll back as the crop is set to arrive in mandis by the end of October.

The Punjab B as ma ti Rice Millers’ Association has said that said big mills set up under the ‘mega project’ category have been exempted from the market fee, so the business will shift to those. In 2013, the government had abolished both the fees for basmati, but it was back in 2015.