The Hindu Business Line : Kerala traders’ plea to AP on rice off-take

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A recent Andhra Pradesh Government Order, insisting that outside merchants lift their stocks for four months at a stretch have caused concern among traders in Kerala, who say it poses severe difficulties in this consumer state. Trade circles said that under the new rule, licensed wholesalers in Kerala have to lift the stock for January—April period in a single bulk from rice mills in Andhra Pradesh, instead of the monthly off-take system followed for long. Taking such a huge quantum has created problems like finding wagons to move the stock and keeping them in hygienic conditions in warehouses and godowns for a long time, said a wholesale rice trader from Kollam. “This order on stock—taking was issued a few months back on the ground that it was necessary to streamline levy taking in the producing state to sustain its Public Distribution System,” Mr Ramesh Kumar, Treasurer of Chamber of Commerce, Kollam, told PTI . “Though we don’t want to question the genuine intentions of such a measure, we have been urging the Kerala government to prevail on Andhra Pradesh to have the order relaxed,” he said. - PTI

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