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Title: Shri H.D. Devegowda called the attention of the Minister of Commerce and Industry to the need to increase per barn quota for tobacco and to supply fertilizers at subsidized rates.
SHRI H.D. DEVEGOWDA (HASSAN): Mr. Deputy-Speaker, sir, I call the attention of the Minister of Commerce and Industry to the following matter of urgent public importance and request that he may make a statement thereon:
“Need to increase the per barn quota for excess production of tobacco in Karnataka and to supply fertilizers at subsidized rates to tobacco growers.”
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI JAIRAM RAMESH): Mr. Deputy-Speaker, Sir, a detailed statement on the Calling Attention Motion raised by the hon. Member is laid on the Table of the House. I would not like to read from the statement, but, if you permit me, I would like to make a couple of observations on the Calling Attention Motion raised by the hon. Member. On the 12th of March, a delegation of tobacco growers from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the two major tobacco growing States of the country, met me and I have spent over two hours with them.
MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Mr. Minister, you can make these observations at the time of reply.
SHRI JAIRAM RAMESH: All right, Sir. A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
*1. Removal of penalties imposed on farmers:
Every year, the Tobacco Board fixes a crop size after considering the domestic and international demand, left over stocks, the projected demand by traders and
* ……* This part of the Speech was laid on the Table.
exporters and the international production scenario. But, every year the growers are producing excess tobacco over and above the authorized quota resulting in fail in farm prices. This has lead to repeated agitations by the farmers and the Government is forced to resort to levying penalty on excess crop produced in order to protect the interest of the law abiding farmers. India is also a signatory to Frame work Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) under the WHO and it is mandatory for India to fulfill the commitment by taking up appropriate measures to reduce the demand as well as supply of tobacco.
The penalty for excess production beyond authorized crop size is currently Rs.2 per kg and 15% service charges. This was fixed after lot of deliberation in 2005-06 when the Government came to view that the penalties imposed on marketing of excess/unauthorized crop will have a deterrent value if they are rather large and are announced alongside the authorized crop.
In this regard, the past experience of 2000-01 needs to be considered when a crop holiday had to be declared in AP because the prices crashed to their lowest owing to a large increase in unauthorized crop production in 1998-99 and 1999-2000. However, following “crop holiday in AP, the” unauthorized crop size again started increasing and reached 41.94 MKgs in 2004-05 in AP alone. Consequently, the Government had to hike penalty from Rs.l/- per kg and normal service charges of 1% to the current level. This resulted in a significant reduction in unauthorized crop in AP and Karnataka.
However, keeping in view the wishes of tobacco growers, the Government has sought views of Tobacco Board on the fact whether instead of reducing penalties, the crop size needs to.be increased keeping in view the market demand. The higher crop size, if supported by market demand, would amount to lower overall penalties even with penalty rate remaining the same. The views of Tobacco Board are awaited.
On utilization of penalty amount, the Government has advised the Board to suggest innovative ways to utilize the surplus funds available with them for the benefit of tobacco farmers and for finding ways of increasing their income through alternative crops/ value added products. It has been decided in the meeting held to discuss the recommendations of Peer Review on Tobacco Board that the penalty amount may be ploughed back to tobacco farmers in the post-harvest phase and used for modernization of tobacco processing facilities.
2. Increasing barn quota and authorised crop size
One of the important functions of Tobacco Board is to regulate the production of FCV tobacco in order to ensure remunerative prices to growers and avoid market glut, due to excess production. This objective is sought to be achieved by fixing a crop size every year for Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka after taking into consideration the Export demand forecast estimates given by Trade (ITA), Global Production Scenario, Carryover stocks and Domestic requirements etc.
The Crop size fixed for Karnataka has increased substantially over the 7 years from 38.07 M.Kgs in 2001-02 to 95.00 M.Kgs in 2007-08. The following are the details of the crop size fixed and the actual production in Karnataka.
YEAR
No. of Growers
No. of barns
Crop size fixed
M.Kgs)
Crop size
Including 10% nature bounty
Actual
crop
produced
(in Mkgs)
QUOTA
PER SIMPLEX
BARN .
(in Kgs)
2001-02
18751
25207
38.07
41.87
57.68 |1500
2002-03
19351
25886
/
50.00
55.00
63.26.
1900
2003-04
19702
26330
53.00
58.30
73.69
1750
2004-05
39702
55425
67.00
73.70
90.34
1750
2005-06
40544
56630
76.56
84.21
82.91
1350
2006-07
40641
56531
84.00
92.00
96.98
1480
2007-08
40740
56514
95.00
95.00
87.66*
1675
*Even lower than the crop size fixed