The Hindu Business Line : PHDCCI for scrapping of controls on movement of agricultural goods

Industry & Economy - Industry Associations
Agri-Biz & Commodities - Agricultural Policy

PHDCCI for scrapping of controls on movement of agricultural goods

Our Bureau

New Delhi , May 26

THE PHDCCI on Wednesday called for the need to do away with the controls on movement of agricultural commodities across States as a step towards creating a free market.

The Chamber, in a release today, said the agricultural sector was governed by several controls that had been introduced during the license-raj, resulting in administrative constraints and complexities for effective movement of agricultural produce within the country.

A number of restrictive control orders were derived from the Essential Commodities Act (ECA), which aimed at regulating distribution of essential commodities across the State borders and was responsible for imposing licensing, storage and movement restrictions across the States, the release said.

Though the number of commodities under the ECA had been pruned, many seemingly non-essential goods still retained the essential status and continued to face restrictions on the inter-State trade.

The Chamber asked the States to endorse the Centre's decision to prune the essential commodities list as many of them were still placing formal and informal curbs on movement of essential items, despite agreeing to the policy of treating the entire country as one zone.

"Many States still resort to placing formal and informal curbs on movement of essential items despite agreeing to the policy of treating the entire country as one zone.

For instance, the law enacted by the Uttar Pradesh Government relating to essential commodities restricts the inter-State movement of foodgrains.

"Similarly, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir also continue to impose such restrictions," the release said.

The Chamber also called for amendment in the State-level Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act (APMC), which prevented direct marketing and development of agriculture markets in private and cooperative sectors.

According to the Chamber, the amendment to this Act has been effected only in Karnataka, while Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had experimented with limited direct marketing only for small and marginal farmers.

The large-scale private or cooperative sectors were unable to market agriculture produce across the country, the Chamber said.

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