CHANDIGARH – Out of two Million tonne of non basmati rice being exported from the country, Punjab was all set to export one Million tonne to the tune of Rs.2500 crore during the Kharif marketing season – 2011-12.
Addressing the media persons here today at Punjab Bhawan this afternoon, Food & Civil Supplies Minister Mr. Adesh Partap Singh Kairon said that the GoI lifted the ban on the export of non basmati rice in the month of September and now the export of rice had only been permitted from private trade and not from the central pool.
The Food & Civil Supplies Minister further said that the Punjab Cabinet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal gave a nod to allow levy free private purchase of non basmati paddy in a meeting held yesterday.
In another significant decision the Cabinet also approved to refund the infrastructure development cess on the rice exported from the state. It may be recalled that the ID cess was 3% which would be refunded along with other taxes on the production of the proof of rice exported from Punjab. An estimated amount of ID cess to be refunded was likely to be nearly Rs. 80 crore. Mr. Kairon further said that the Food & Civil Supplies department held several meetings with the Government of India to allow the quota for export of rice to the state of Punjab on the basis of its proportionate contribution to the Central pool.
The Minister further said that the state government had taken this decision pro-actively to ensure remunerative prices to the farmers over and above the MSP on one hand and to facilitate the private exporters to purchase paddy from mandis on the other. As per the information available with the food and supplies department, the private traders had hardly any stock for export because they were bound to give 75% of the rice out of their private purchase to the central pool. It may be recalled that the foodgrain stocks in the godowns in the state were already full to its storing capacity.
Mr. Kairon pointed out that the department of Food & Civil Supplies had also raised the issue for faster movement of the foodgrains ex-Punjab with Centre at different quarters, as 200 lakh tones of foodgrains was still lying in the state due to shortage of storage capacity. Outward movement of foodgrains from Punjab was not up to the desired level which should at least the 28-30 lakh tones every month out of state. He also said that the Chief Minister personally met the Prime Minister to direct the Ministry of Food to allow Punjab additional capacity for the scientific storage of the foodgrains.
Mr. Kairon was accompanied by the Media Advisor to the Chief Minister Mr. Harcharan Bains and Secretary Food & Civil Supplies Mr. DS Grewal.
