Centre yet to lift 40 lakh tonnes of rice for PDS, say millers

Rice millers have said the Centre has not lifted about 40 lakh tonnes of rice, meant for PDS, from mills and demanded that the government should either buy the foodgrain from them or allow them to offload it in the domestic and overseas markets.    

"As much as 40 lakh tonnes of both levy and custom milling rice (CMR) are lying with millers. Though the government is obligated to lift it mainly for the PDS, it is not buying the rice," the Federation of All India Rice Millers Association President Tarsem Saini said here late last night.     

Millers are mandated to sell a specified portion of the rice, converted out of the paddy they procure from farmers, to the government for PDS purpose, which is known as levy rice. The percentage of levy rice varies from state to state.     

Custom milling rice is made out of the paddy that the government supplies to millers for the purpose of milling. Millers are mandated to sell both levy rice and the CMR only to the government.     

Since the export of non-basmati rice is banned and both the levy rice and CMR cannot be sold in the domestic market, millers are helpless, the Federation's General Secretary Sushil Kumar Choudhury said.     

"We are urging the government to buy the levy rice and CMR. If it can't be done, it should allow us to sell the rice in domestic and overseas markets," Choudhury said.

The millers are pitching for lifting the ban on the export of non-basmati rice, slapped in April 2008, to contain surging inflation, saying the government needs to allow shipment as its warehouses are now full of foodgrain and there is a crunch in storage space to accommodate fresh crops.     

"The Centre has procured more than its buffer norms of 28 million tonnes of rice. It has huge reserves and there is a shortage of storage space. In such a situation, it should allow exports to provide good returns to both traders and farmers," he said.     

At present, paddy is selling over Rs 200 less than MSP of Rs 900 a quintal in some states like Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Gujarat.     

If export is allowed, traders will offer competitive prices to farmers for their produce, the millers added.