Govt aims for GST Council-type model in agri marketing

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Undeterred by the delay of the committee asked to submit a report on the effective implementation of the minimum support price (MSP), the Centre is considering setting up a committee of all State ministers of agriculture marketing with the objective of making uniform taxes and levies on agriculture commodities as well as free inter-State movement.

Though the issue is at a discussion stage currently, such a committee may help evolve a GST Council type structure in future if it becomes successful, sources said.

While agriculture is a State subject, agricultural trade comes under concurrent list. As the government is also considering having a uniform levy (the fee and other local cess) across the country through legislation, the formation of a committee of State ministers will help in creating a consensus, the sources said. There is also a possibility of making an important State agriculture minister as the chairman of the panel and making it rotational with a fixed tenure, the sources said.

FPO policy

The Sanjay Agarwal-led committee, constituted by the Centre on MSP, has held six meetings in two years from July 2022, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told Parliament on July 26. Though he said the Government is committed to ensuring the full benefits of MSP reach the farmers, he evaded a direct answer on whether a Bill will be introduced to make MSP legal.

Meanwhile, the government is keen to roll out a policy on FPO for which it has floated a draft policy and now considering hundreds of feedback from the stakeholders. Once the draft is further fine-tuned on the basis of feedback, Chouhan is keen to interact with select FPOs in an exclusive consultation, sources said. An FPO executive, who has been sounded out of such a plan, said that there should be more support on marketing, at least from government organisations.

“Several government organisations are procuring agricultural products and reserving some items for FPOs will help us to have a ready market available,” the chief executive officer (CEO) of a Madhya Pradesh-based FPO said.

One of the proposals as mentioned in the draft policy is to professionalise the FPOs through appointment of the CEO. As no guidelines exist now, the government has proposed to incentivise those FPOs financially for three years if they appoint CEOs from a list of empanelled professionals. The empanelment will be made by the Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC), the agency tasked to implement the policy.

“In case, qualified and skilled CEO from panel is once appointed, it would be duty of CEO to manage and execute the entire agribusiness affairs of FPO,” the draft policy said.