Bengal govt likely to defer hike in cold storage charge

Keeping an eye on the oncoming Panchayat election in the state, the Mamata Banerjee government might go for a deferred announcement of the hike in cold storage charge for potato. The high power committee of three ministers (Agriculture, Food and Agri-Marketing) met on Sunday and decided to submit their recommendations before the chief minister on or before March 9.

However, the West Bengal Cold Storage Association has already been informally sounded out by the government about the probable rate of hike and probable deferred announcement of it. The potato harvesting in the state is expected to begin in about a week time. Usually, the state government announces the storage rate of potato every year before the commencement of the potato harvesting. The West Bengal Cold Storage Association has been demanding a minimum hike of Rs .36 per quintal of potato this year. The present rate is Rs.101 per quintal. The cold storage owners' argument is that in the preceding two years the operational expenses has gone up owing to the rising cost of electricity charges, salary of employees, increase in cost of stores and spare parts, loading and unloading charges etc. Arup Roy, state minister of Agri-Marketing, indicated that the government would revise the storage rate upwardly, but refused to give further details.

But, according to one of the leaders of the Cold Storage Association, the government would allow them a very nominal increase of the storage rate for potato and hinted at that the announcement would be made around May 15 once the Panchayat election was over. "Mamata Banerjee is extremely sensitive about her image as a pro-farmers leader. She would not like to do anything to upset the farmers especially before the Panchayat election," says one leader of the Association. The government is keen to hold the Panchayat election in the last week of April. According to the owners of the Cold Stores, if the existing storage rate of Rs 101 per quintal is not revised upwardly, a good number of cold stores will have to be shut down. Already, as many as six cold stores in West Medinipur district have closed their shutters.

There are around 460 cold stores in the state which are used for potato preservation, of these Hoogly and Bardhaman-two districts where intensive potato cultivation takes place-account for more than 160. The average total potato production in the state is around 90 lakh metric ton and the total storage capacity is a little over 50 lakh metric ton. Koushik Kundu, whose family owns seven cold stores in the heart of potato growing area of Bardhaman district, feels that the interest of the cold storage business in the state is intrinsically linked with that of the agriculture and farmers.

If the government does not allow a more rational storage charge then a number of cold stores will have to go out of business. The Association cautions that around 100 cold stores would have to be shut down. Incidentally, in 2011 the storage rate in UP was Rs 135 per quintal, in Bihar it was Rs 160, in Gujarat Rs 140 and in Madhya Pradesh Rs 120 per quintal. Contrary to that in West Bengal the charge was kept at Rs 101 per quintal.

The Association points out that while in other states the storage charges are fixed by the cold store owners collectively after considering the prevalent operational costs. Here, in West Bengal the government controls that. "The problem of the cold storage business in the state stems from this, the Left government used to control everything, and now the Trinamool government is also doing the same," laments a member of the Association.