When UPA rejected Swaminathan’s MSP formula

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New Delhi, February 14

The Congress, which on Tuesday promised a legal guarantee to minimum support price if voted to power in the upcoming General Election, had not accepted the MS Swaminathan formula on MSP calculation during the UPA regime.

Parliamentary records reveal that in an April 2010 answer to a query in the Rajya Sabha, then Minister of State for Agriculture and Food KV Thomas had said that the MS Swaminathan Commission recommendation that the MSP should be at least 50 per cent more than the weighted average cost of production “has not been accepted by the government”.

Reasons cited by then govt

• The recommendation (by the Swaminathan panel) has not been accepted by the (UPA) government as the MSP is recommended by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices
• Therefore, prescribing an increase of at least 50 per cent on the cost may distort the market; a market linkage between the MSP and cost of production may be counter-productive in some cases

Giving reasons for the rejection of the suggestion made by the commission in its report under the UPA-II regime, Thomas said, “The National Commission on Farmers under the chairmanship of MS Swaminathan has recommended that the MSP should be at least 50 per cent more than the weighted average cost of production. This recommendation, however, has not been accepted by the government because the MSP is recommended by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices based on objective criteria and considering a variety of relevant factors. Therefore, prescribing an increase of at least 50 per cent on the cost may distort the market. A market linkage between the MSP and cost of production may be counter-productive in some cases.”

The answer was to a question by BJP MP Prakash Javadekar who had asked whether the government had accepted the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission regarding the calculation of remunerative prices to be paid to the farmers.

The MSP formula recommended by MS Swaminathan was implemented after the BJP government came to power in 2014.

BJP leaders on Wednesday asked why the Congress did not implement the Swaminathan Commission recommendations while it was in power. The National Commission on Farmers submitted five reports between December 2004 and October 2006 under former PM Manmohan Singh.