The Hindu Business Line : Rice millers to meet tomorrow in Hyderabad

RICE millers in Andhra Pradesh are to meet on Wednesday in Hyderabad to deliberate on the issue of agricultural marketing cess of one per cent imposed on rice, according to Mr D. Bhaskara Reddy, President of the East Godavari District Rice Millers' Association and the Andhra Pradesh Rice Millers' Association.

Millers had approached the High Court against the imposition of the cess, but the Court recently given the verdict against the contention of the millers, Mr Reddy told Business Line.

"We have to decide upon the future course of action and whether we should move the Supreme Court. For the purpose, representatives of all the district associations will meet on Wednesday in Hyderabad,'' he said.

Mr Reddy said the millers have been paying agricultural marketing cess of one per cent on paddy and "it will too much of a burden on them to impose one more per cent on rice.'' He said the rice milling industry in the State was in a crisis and the cess would further cut into the already thin margins.

Contending that the millers in the State would only be too happy to take up custom milling as in Punjab, if the Government was willing to procure paddy at the prices fixed by it, he said the millers were finding it difficult to stay in the market. "The Government has pegged the minimum price at Rs 420 per bag of paddy (75 kg), but millers are in fact paying Rs 30-40 more to the farmer," he said.

Still, he complained, there was no assistance from the State Government or the Centre in the form of any concession in the matter of power tariff or any other issue.

The Government had fixed the procurement target at 42 lakh tonnes in the State for the season and up to 6 lakh tonnes have been procured, with West Godavari accounting for 2.1 lakh tonnes and East Godavari 2.03 lakh tonnes. The target for East Godavari had been fixed at 8 lakh tonnes, he added.

On the export front, he said rice was being exported to Sri Lanka this season. "The Government agencies there are importing it. In spite of tsunami, we hope the import will continue. It may only be a temporary setback,'' he said.

He urged the Government to give export subsidy of Rs 900 per tonne as during the last season to give a boost exports.

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