Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public distribution, at the behest of Punjab Government, has granted one-time exemption to the State in implementation of online ‘Procurement and Payment System’.
The Union Ministry has directed the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to accept Custom Milled Rice (CMR) for the Kharif Marketing Season 2019-20, said the state Food and Civil Supplies Department director Anindita Mitra.
Mitra said that the State has been granted the exemption as a special case, since in comparison to the previous seasons, Punjab has shown improvement regarding online registration of farmers and also improved online payment by arhtiyas (commission agents) through Public Financial Management System (PFMS).
About 2,557 farmers towards the end of the procurement season, were made online payment via PFMS, she informed adding that the State has assured the Centre’s Department of Food and Public Distribution that online procurement system will be implemented by the Rabi Marketing Season 2020-21 and State will update monthly status on the progress in this regard to the Department.
Pertinently, the FCI was earlier directed to accept CMR for KMS 2019-20 and make payments to the State agencies only if the payments are made online directly to the registered farmers’ account by the State agencies of Punjab and Haryana.
Besides, the States were also asked to do the procurement through online procurement system; including registration of farmers.