Custom milling policy: Strict measures for traders dealing in recycled rice

Traders from Punjab and Haryana buy cheap rice from UP and Bihar which is mostly kept for public distribution. It is mixed with freshly shelled rice to be handed over to the FCI and has a high value due to the increased minimum support price which is increased every year by the Centre.

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The food and civil supplies department Punjab is mulling over the custom milling policy (CMP) for the upcoming year, starting from Kharif (paddy) procurement in October-November months. The department may introduce strict provisions for criminal action against traders and millers, who deal in recycled rice with the intention of mixing it in rice from freshly procured paddy.

An official of food and civil supplies department told HT, on anonymity, that anyone caught mixing cheap rice procured in previous seasons with freshly shelled rice during the upcoming procurement season will be charged under Sections of Essential Commodities Act and provisions of Indian Penal Code such as cheating and criminal conspiracy. After a proposal for a new CMP is finalised, the draft will be taken to the state cabinet for approval.

The department came to know that the practice had been rampant in the previous years. “However, in absence of provisions in the CMP, defaulters escaped on the pretext of non-stringent norms,” said an officer in the department.

Explaining how defaulters escaped from the rule of law, an officer said that traders who were caught bringing cheap rice from other states, particularly UP, said they would sell the rice in the open market but in most cases it was brought to be mixed in freshly shelled rice. He hinted of a few hundred crores involved in the illegal trade causing heavy losses to state exchequer.

What is recycled rice?

Traders from Punjab and Haryana buy cheap rice from UP and Bihar which is mostly kept for public distribution. It is mixed with freshly shelled rice to be handed over to the food corporation of India (FCI) and has a high value due to the increased minimum support price which is increased every year by the centre. “It is a straight case of cheating and direct loss to the exchequer and we want to check this practice,” said the officer.

More millers in bank guarantee ambit

The food department, in the forthcoming year, plans to bring rice millers with milling capacity of 3,000 tonne under the ambit of a bank guarantee. In the previous year, millers with 5,000 tonne milling capacity were brought under bank guarantee purview. “Now a miller who mills more than 3,000 tonne of his milling capacity will pay 5% of the price of paddy.

Food department officials say it is done to ensure that the entire paddy is handed back to FCI in form of rice. A shortcoming if any will be retrieved from the bank guarantee. Officials add the system of bank guarantee has eased the system of handing back rice and the new provision will help make systems even better.