With Odisha Government not able to pay the incidental costs to the paddy procurers, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has urged the Union Government to settle the issue to facilitate smooth procurement of paddy.
Patnaik wrote to Union Minister, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilash Paswan in this regard and asked to instruct the officials to fix provisional incidental costs at a reasonable level immediately.
Patnaik said decentralised system of paddy procurement was started in Odisha in 2003-04 with a modest procurement of 60,000 metric tonne (MT). This has reached 52 lakh MT in 2016-17 and in 2017-18, the State administration has already procured 34 lakh MT of paddy.
While Kharif paddy procurement is at fag end, preparations are on for procurement of Rabi paddy from May 1. And till date, the State Government has not been able to pay incidental charges as the Government of India has fixed rates at an extremely low level as compared to the market rates, which is not acceptable to the State.
The Government of India has fixed such low rates using indexation on the last finalised accounts of 2003-04, while the Government of Odisha has already submitted accounts up to 2015-16. While finalisation of accounts is a time consuming process and revision of incidental rates at a reasonable level should not be contingent to finalisation of up to date accounts.
If the State Government does not pay incidentals at the earliest, there is every possibility of disruption in the Rabi paddy procurement. In fact, abnormal lower rates fixed for different incidentals for procurement of paddy and collection of custom milled rice (CMR) has posed serious problem for authorities in the State.
The Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has fixed at Rs 4.75 per quintal for brining paddy from purchase centers to the mill premises for the Kharif marketing season (KMS) 2017-18. Interestingly, transportation charges for KMS 2016-17 was fixed at Rs 36.18 per quintal.
And instead of hiking the transportation charges, the Union Government has slashed it to Rs 4.75 per quintal, which is apparently unworkable considering the rates of transportation prevalent in Odisha. According to sources while for procurement of paddy this rate is fixed, transportation charges on custom milled rice from mill point to godowns of the State Agency is also low and unworkable.
While during KMS 2016-17, the rate was Rs13.44 per quintal, the Union Ministry has slashed it to Rs 6.62 per quintal. Both the rates are unworkable and not at all feasible considering the present rate of food grains transportation in the State, pointed out the rice millers.
Present transportation rates for food grains transportation is above Rs 30 per quintal and officials on Odisha State Civil Supply Corporation (OSCSC) agree that the transportation rate fixed by the Union Government is abnormally low.
The OSCSC, which is handling paddy procurement, is not able to pay the amount to the millers as the rate is not acceptable to them.
Similarly, gunny depreciation and usage charges have been fixed at Rs 12.30 as against the State Government proposal for Rs 24. Administrative charges on CMR have been fixed at a much lower level, which is not acceptable to the State Government, officials say.
During KMS 2016-17 the charge was fixed at 2.5 per cent, which has been slashed to 1 per cent during KMS 2017-18.
This has created a logjam and accordingly Chief Minister Patnaik has taken up the issue with the Union Government to consider a hike immediately as it is threatening smooth paddy procurement.