BENGALURU: Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Minister KH Muniyappa has urged the Union Government to release Rs 2,040 crore pending claims of the state procurement agencies.
In a letter to Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal, Muniyappa said that the delay has “caused an undue financial burden on the state and impacted its ability to conduct Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations for coarse grains on behalf of the Centre.”
As per the MSP policy of the Centre, the state government is procuring coarse grains and paddy (converted as custom-milled rice and distributed under PDS) from farmers and accounting it to the Central pool.
“After the entire process is completed, the agencies proffer their claims as per the provisional/final costing sheet approved by Gol. However, since 2009-10 the Gol has not settled the claims of the procuring agencies of Karnataka,” he said.
After Chief Minister Siddaramaiah wrote a letter, the Centre released a provisional subsidy of Rs 784.33 crore this financial year. But to date, provisional and final subsidy from 2009-10 to 2022-23, amounting to Rs 2,040.45 crore, is pending with the Centre,” he said.
He urged the Centre to increase the MSP for Maldandi jowar to Rs 4,500 per quintal as it will help farmers and also procurement.
For the Kharif monsoon season 2023-24, the Centre has fixed MSP for jowar-hybrid at Rs 3,180 per quintal and Maldandi jowar at Rs 3,225.