Paddy and rice millers have urged the Tamil Nadu government, under Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, to take up the issue of Goods and Services Tax (GST) waiver for rice, an essential commodity, with the Centre and the GST Council.
, and States can raise their concerns there, said D. Thulasingam, president, Federation of Tamil Nadu Rice Mill Owners and Paddy Rice Federation.
Poor people, who buy a few kilograms of rice at a time, are being hit by this unnecessary tax. Rice packs weighing below 26 kg are now taxed at 5% GST, he said.
“Nearly 15%-20% of consumers, such as daily wage labourers, buy rice in small quantities. Before the GST regime, some States such as Karnataka and undivided Andhra Pradesh had levied taxes on rice. But that was only 1% or 2%. GST is also one reason for the increase in rice prices,” he said.
A.C. Mohan, secretary of the federation, said rice was perhaps the only commodity that saw a fall in prices every year.
“The government has been increasing the Minimum Support Price given to farmers every year. The price of fertilizers has risen, so have labour charges. When this is the situation, why won’t prices of rice go up? But it will also invariably come down when the harvest is good.”
He explained that shortage of rice was not the reason for prices going up.
“We have enough stocks, and there is no hoarding happening either. The super fine varieties of Sona Masoori, White Ponni, and BPT, which come from other States, have become costly. Tamil Nadu does not grow much of these varieties. Some brands that depend on such varieties from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have raised their selling price,” Mr. Mohan said.
Paddy marketing fee
The Federation has also urged the State government to not charge the 1% marketing fee on paddy from other States as that has been collected already by those governments. This fee should be collected only on paddy being brought by farmers to market yards in Tamil Nadu, it added.
