In an effort to reintroduce the bill seeking amendments in the Agricultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, the Maharashtra government has started discussions with stakeholders, including farmers’ leaders, traders and mathadi workers (head loaders).

In the first meeting recently conducted by State Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil, farmers’ leaders and traders reached an agreement on scrapping cess on the produce brought and traded in Agriculture Produce Market Committee (AMPC) mandis and also approved the provision to allow trade in all farm commodities outside APMC wholesale markets.

Backlash

In November 2018, a day after a bill to amend the Act was passed in the State Legislative Assembly, the government withdrew it from the Legislative Council following an indefinite strike called by Mumbai and Pune market committees. The APMC committees had alleged that the proposed amendment severely limited the power of APMCs. The bill had proposed to free essential items from the purview of the APMCs and allow those to be sold outside as well.

The bill had a provision that APMCs can continue to levy a cess/market fee on the produce brought and traded in their mandis, but cannot be charged on trades outside.

After withdrawing the bill, the State government had announced meetings with stakeholders to iron out differences before reintroducing the bill.

“The first meeting was recently held. We agreed that traders will not be able to compete if cess is imposed on trading inside APMC mandis. There should be no cess on trading inside and outside mandis and government must look for some other avenues to fill up the revenue gap,” Anil Ghanvat, president of Shetkari Sanghatana told BusinessLine .

“But at the same time we insisted that farmers must be allowed to sell their produce anywhere they want and big companies can directly purchase produce from farmers. APMCs will have no role to play in these dealings. Traders agreed,” he added.

The provision that the APMC shall “not regulate marketing of agricultural produce and livestock in its delineated market area” will continue in the new bill and farmers will not compromise on this provision, said Ghanvat.

Government sources said the State will conduct another meeting in the next ten days. The government is likely to reintroduce the Bill before Lok Sabha elections are announced.

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