CHENNAI: Faced with a fund crunch, the Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday urged the Union government to release the pending custom milled rice (CMR) subsidy of Rs 5,231.09 crore to the state immediately. This, it said, would enable it to settle the paddy procurement dues to farmers. The amount has been pending since 2018-19 fiscal year.
The Centre had released only Rs 7,929.42 crore in the last four fiscals, while the amount claimed by the state government was Rs 13,160.51 crore for this period. “The state has procured around 44 lakh tonnes during 2020-21 and expect to procure 51 lakh tonnes in the coming season. Due to huge payment yet to be received from the Union government, the state is finding it very difficult to arrange funds for procurement. Now with the state reaching its peak procurement season, the government requested urgent release of funds,” an official source said.
The Centre has not released the pending dues from the beginning of this fiscal year, even as the state made Rs 2,247 crore for this period.
Food minister R Sakkarapani made the request while meeting with Union minister for food and public distribution Piyush Goyal in Delhi. The state government demanded that the Centre increase the milling charges fixed for raw rice and parboiled rice, that had not been revised since 2005, to Rs 100/ quintal and Rs 60/quintal.
Also, the state insisted the rice sold by the Food Corporation of India to the state government under the open market sales scheme be reduced to Rs 15/kg from Rs 20/kg.
The state purchases 50,000 tonnes to 1 lakh tonnes of rice through e-auction from FCI to tide over the deficit supply as it follows universal PDS, where 2.75 lakh tonnes of rice are supplied free of cost to all PDS cardholders.
As heavy rainfall is anticipated in all the districts during the northeast monsoon, especially in the major paddy growing districts, it will result in high moisture content of paddy to be harvested during the monsoon period from October 1.
Sakkarapani had requested the Centre to relax the moisture content of 17% to 20% to alleviate the problems faced by the farmers and prevent them from distress sale.
