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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Unfair Tax: Mandi tax on grain procurement offers some states a double privilege

Unfair Tax: Mandi tax on grain procurement offers some states a double privilege

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published Published on Jul 13, 2012   modified Modified on Jul 13, 2012
-The Economic Times

State levies on grain purchase by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) will reportedly push up the Centre's food subsidy bill by Rs 10,000 crore this fiscal year. 

This is absurd and untenable. High taxes and commissions - 14.5% in Punjab and 10.5% in Haryana - on the minimum support price (MSP) of grain jack up the costs of procurement, drive private trade out of these markets, and set up a system of privileged devolutions from the Centre to select states. 

Punjab and Haryana have cornered central funds in name of the mandi tax. However, the special devolution, over and above what they are entitled to under the Finance Commission's award, is doubly unfair to states that do not even see procurement from their farmers. 

Rightly, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has cautioned that other states could also follow suit and raise levies, raising the procurement bill. It has recommended that the Centre should engage with state governments, especially of Punjab and Haryana, on the issue of how else they can be compensated for their resources spent on India's food security. 

This makes eminent sense. Ideally, the MSP must subsume all taxes in it. The CACP wants these levies to be capped at 5%. So, the MSP should be established as a base-level price that ensures a reasonable markup over cost, requiring the government to step in when prices fall below the cost. Any state that wants to impose taxes to raise more money should charge levies directly on farmers. 

The point is that the Centre should discourage states from levying local taxes on the purchase price of grain as they discourage private trade and distort the market. In Punjab, for instance, during the rabi marketing season in 2011-12, purchases by private traders accounted for only 1.2 % of the arrival, while it was only 0.06% in Haryana. That said, the Centre should also revamp the entire food management system. 

Today, procurement, storage and distribution through the FCI and state civil supplies departments is riddled with inefficiency, pilferage, spoilage and waste. It should allow and encourage private trade to play a larger role in the grain trade.

The Economic Times, 13 July, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/unfair-tax-mandi-tax-on-grain-procurement-offers-some-states-a-double-privilege/articleshow/14859089.cms


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