BHUBANESWAR: With the ruling BJD and Opposition Congress disputing the modalities of calculation of production cost of paddy, the Centre’s decision to increase the minimum support price for all crops to 1.5 times has come in for criticism from the two major political parties. While the State Government has been demanding for a hike in the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy to Rs 2,930 per quintal basing on a production cost of Rs 2,344 per quintal, the Centre justified the MSP fixed at Rs 1,550 for kharif marketing season 2017 claiming that the national weighted average cost of production of Rs 1,117 per quintal.
While welcoming the intent of the Central Government, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the State Government is keenly waiting to see the modalities of calculation of the production cost by the Centre. “It has been a constant demand to increase the minimum support price for the farmers. However, the cost of production must take into account the actual cost incurred by the farmers on a realistic basis,” the Chief Minister said in his reaction to the Union Budget here.
Dubbing Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's announcement that the Centre has decided to keep MSP for all hitherto unannounced crops of kharif at least at one and half times their production cost as another gimmick, BJD’s Rajya Sabha MP and former finance minister Prasanna Acharya said Prime Minister Narendra Modi made this promise during 2014 general election. Meanwhile, nearly four years have passed but the Prime Minister failed to keep his promise.
“I am not sure whether the Centre will implement its decision even in the next kharif season. Besides, it will not benefit the farmers as the input cost in the State is much higher than the cost estimated by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP),” Acharya said. On the other hand, Congress said the MSP for paddy have become more than double during the UPA government at Centre. The MSP for paddy has increased by 130 per cent from Rs 560 per quintal in 2004-05 to Rs1,310 in 2013-14.
The BJP has been making false promise to the farmers so far, said Leader of the Opposition Narasingh Mishra. The paddy MSP issue rocked the Assembly on several occasions. After failing to get an appointment with the Prime Minister on two occasions to discuss MSP hike, the Assembly passed a resolution during the winter session deciding to meet President of India Ram Nath Kovind on the issue. The ruling party took the issue to the people by organising Statewide agitation after the Centre rejected the state demand for a hike in the paddy MSP.