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Govt kicks off process of delisting vegetables and fruit from APMC Act
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Tuesday, 08 July, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Ashwani Maindola, New Delhi
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fiogf49gjkf0d The government has initiated the process of delisting perishable items from the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act.
At a meeting of state food ministers held in New Delhi, chaired by finance minister Arun Jaitley, consumer affairs, food and public distribution minister Ram Vilas Paswan and agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, it was decided to chalk out a six-month plan of action wherein vegetable, fruits and other perishable commodities, which are price-sensitive would be removed from the Act’s ambit. State governments would take immediate action to issue appropriate notifications in this matter.
The food ministry stated that it was agreed upon that in the interim, states would exempt these perishable commodities from the APMC yard taxes and local fees, if any, to provide some relief on pricing, before completely delisting.
The Delhi government, currently being run by the Centre through a lieutenant-governor, has already started process of delisting the fruit and vegetables.
In this regard, the state government issued a notification for inviting objections and suggestions in this regard. According to officials of the Directorate of Agricultural Marketing, this would take 45 days before a final decision is taken as per the Act.
According to the notification by the Delhi government, the perishables, including fruit and vegetables, are being delisted from APMC markets in Azadpur, Keshopur and Shahdara.
Jaitley reiterated that the government would not allow escalation in food inflation. He added that onions and potatoes were scarce, but there was a record production instead. He said that in Delhi, supplies were being restored with the addition of more procurement from states like Rajasthan.
“It is a supply side problem, and not a problem of proof production,” he stated, adding that in the monsoon, there was no need to panic.
“The monsoon just had started. It is late, but we need not to put ourself in panic mode. We had sufficient stocks to face any situation. Now, depending on where the shortfall areas are, if such a situation does emerge we are equipped with for such a situation,” the minister said.
Paswan, meanwhile, said that in the meeting it was also agreed upon that the government of India should consider setting up a price stabilisation fund to enable states to undertake market intervention to tackle rise in prices of commodities of the common man’s consumption.
There should effective operations against hoarders and black-marketers. These steps should be swift and visible and the foodgrain stocks seized distributed through retail outlets of the Food and Civil Supplies Corporation.
“In this regard, it was decided that the Essential Commodities Act would be given more teeth and offence under the Act would be made non-bailable. To bring an amendment into the Act, the process has been started,” he added.
The food ministers noted that the the government of India and the state governments should work together on the action plan and its effective implementation over the next six months.
The other points of the six-month action plan were:
- The action plan would cover rice, jowar, bajra, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, moong dal, masur dal, tur dal, edible oils, bread, milk and eggs
- The states would map vulnerable areas prone to supply shortages for special monitoring, and ensure that stock-out situations do not occur especially for these items of common consumption
- In areas where coarse cereals like jowar, bajra and maize constitute the staple diet, close monitoring of the availability of these commodities and ensuring that the quality of the produce does not deteriorate in storage will be done
- The states would mobilise the existing storage capacity utilising the government/private/cooperative storage infrastructure to ensure that adequate decentralised stocks are maintained across different cities/rural areas of the state to ensure adequate supplies of these commodities
- During the six-month period ahead, the states would establish a price monitoring cell that would monitor the prices of these specific commodities on the basis of wholesale prices at the mandies as well as the retail prices obtaining in various parts of the state. This should enable the states to make market interventions on a real-time basis
- The states are encouraged to establish a revolving fund for buying products/produce in bulk and regulate their storage as well as distribution to meet the peak demand during the festival season at reasonable prices. This should be done through the public distribution system for the benefit of the BPL cardholders
- The Food and Civil Supplies Corporation of the state should partner with the network of cooperative societies to sell important essential commodities, including through public distribution system (PDS) shops to economically-weaker sections (ration cardholders and green cardholders) at reasonable prices
- Senior officers, such as the district commissioners and collectors in the district and the municipal commissioners in the cities and towns may be designated as focal points for monitoring the availability and price levels of these commodities
- Onions would constitute a major challenge since five states: Maharashtra (28 per cent); Madhya Pradesh (16 per cent), Karnataka (14 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (nine per cent) and Bihar (seven per cent) account for 75 per cent of the total production of onions. The onion wholesale market is also controlled by a cartel of about 12-15 wholesalers across the country. The free inter-state movement, de-hoarding operations and decentralised stocking of onions to meet the dispersed demand across the country will be ensured. There is also a need to maintain central stocks
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