Small basmati exporters ignored, claims Jakhar

Our Correspondent

Abohar, October 26

While the state Cabinet has given a nod to amend fiscal incentives for industrial promotion (revised)-2013 thereby considering incentives like exemption from mandi fee/rural development fee already given to mega basmati processing units under the “Invest Punjab” scheme, hundreds of small manufacturers and exporters of basmati in the state have been ignored.

This was stated by state Congress vice-president Sunil Jakhar here today. Claiming that small manufactures and processors had made efforts to promote the cultivation of basmati varieties of paddy in compliance of call to save water, he said the government had in the past years exempted basmati varieties of paddy from levy of market fee but it was withdrawn in September 2015 thereby throwing the units into a crisis.

He said the incentives announced last night for mega units were in addition to exemption from electricity duty, stamp duty, interest-free loans of payable VAT. “These are approximately 6 per cent of the cost of paddy basmati. Due to these extra benefits to mega units, the small units will now suffer a disadvantage of approximately 8 per cent plus in taxes and fee compared to the mega units. Consequently, the rice mills which employ a major proportion of the local labour force will not be able to work smoothly. The pick and choose policy of the government shall cause unrest and economic hardship,” he added.

He urged Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to provide comparable relief to existing small units also by exempting them from payment of market fee to enable them to purchase basmati paddy varieties in competition with mega units at a price remunerative to farmers.