K'taka Assembly passes APMC Amendment Bill to regulate e-commerce companies

The Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) (Amendment) Bill was passed by the Karnataka Assembly on Monday.

State Agricultural Marketing Minister Shivanand Patil who presented the bill in the state Assembly said that earlier the government was regulating only the APMC yards but once the bill becomes a law, those doing business on the e-platform will have to operate within its framework.

For example, D Mart, Big Basket, Amazon and Udaan come in our e-commerce platform. They are doing business evading our legal provisions. We are bringing this law to regulate them from doing business without paying cess, Patil told the House.

He also said that in the previous law, there was just the reference to trader' but now the government has incorporated warehouse service providers' in the bill.

We have also defined the duties of warehouse service providers'. Along with that, we have given power to regulate them to the APMC Director. There is also a provision to go for appeal against the director in the appellate authority, Patil explained.

The Minister said recently Udaan had paid a fine of Rs 25 lakh for evading cess.

The bill defines an e-commerce platform' as an online medium that facilitates licensed traders to sell notified agricultural produce to licensed retail traders within the market area, strictly for consumer sales and not for resale or processing. It also allows farmers to make payments through e-payment methods.

The amendment defines a warehouse service provider as an entity that charges a service fee only from the buyer of the notified agricultural produce, with a cap of five per cent of the sale price for fruits, vegetables, and flowers, and two per cent for all other notified produce.

The warehouse service provider is required to ensure the safe custody and storage of the seller's goods and provide adequate insurance coverage against fire, theft, floods, rain, or other natural calamities.

Additionally, the provider must arrange fire-fighting facilities, electronic weighing systems, e-trading facilities, assaying services, quality certification, commodity price displays in markets, and other facilities as prescribed by the Director of Agricultural Marketing. The provider must also facilitate pledge loan arrangements.

The government also outlined the regulations for establishing and operating e-commerce platforms for trading notified agricultural produce, stating that such platforms can only function after obtaining the necessary licenses.