Centre asks Punjab govt to submit pending foodgrain bills

The Union Food Ministry has asked the Punjab government to submit pending bills of last three years related to foodgrain procurement for reimbursement so that the state can repay outstanding loans to the banks.
The repayment of loan by the state government would enable it to avail fresh cash credit from banks for undertaking wheat procurement in the ongoing rabi season.
Some 30-odd banks, led by SBI, had extended loans of Rs 12,000 crore to the state for foodgrain procurement programme.
"We have cleared bills for foodgrains procurement based on support price (MSP). But other bills related to expenses like interest, transporation, and other incidental costs have not been submitted for last three years. In some cases, inflated bills have been submitted," a senior Food Ministry official said.

The submitted bills are being cleared as per the norms, the official said.
The issue of pending bills was raised earlier in 2014 and a joint committee was also set up to look into the matter. The state government was asked to submit bills in six months but it did not take any action, the official shared.

Punjab Food and Civil Supplies Director Shivdular Singh Dhillon last week had said the state availed huge cash credit loans from commercial banks to fund procurement activities.
However, non-reimbursement of actual led to ballooning of the interest component, which is being compounded on a monthly basis by the lending bank, he had said.

The matter regarding the outstandings/receivables pertaining to the food credit account of the state is already under discussion with the Centre, Dhillon had said.
For procurement purposes, the state on the basis of procurement targets fixed by the Centre, has over the years been authorised a cash credit limit (CCL) upto Rs 20,000 crore by the RBI.
The Centre has set up a procurement target of 30 million tonnes of the 2016-17 marketing year starting this month. The wheat procurement has already commenced and the state has purchased about 3 million tonnes as on April 17.
Punjab and Haryana contributes in a big way to the central pool.