Andhra fixes price of levy rice for kharif mkt season

The Andhra Pradesh government has fixed the price of levy rice for the ensuing kharif marketing season (KMS) at 50 per cent.

It implies that for every tonne of rice delivered as levy to the Food Corporation of India, the rice miller will be allowed to sell half-a-tonne within the state and half tonne anywhere in the country including Andhra Pradesh, according to information and public relations minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy.

The council of ministers has also prescribed the paddy stock to be held by levy delivering rice miller and traders. The paddy wholesalers can stock 750 quintal and retailers 150 quintal.

The state government will also write to the Centre seeking its consent to amend the AP Rice Procurement (Levy) Order 1984, empowering the state government to direct the rice millers to mill paddy and deliver levy or sell the levy-free rice in the open market whenever the situation demanded.

The government has permitted the rice millers, who have delivered the levy but are having 2007-08 KMS paddy, to convert it into raw rice and sell within the state in the open market.

This will augment the supplies in the markets and aid in reduction of prices for the consumers. Joint collectors will monitor the movement and the sale of this rice in the open markets, Ramnarayana Reddy said.