Punjab moves Supreme Court for release of Rs 4,200-crore RDF, market fee dues

Punjab moves Supreme Court for release of Rs 4,200-crore RDF, market fee dues

Chandigarh: The government today knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court against the non-release of the Rural Development Fund and withholding a portion of the market fee by the Centre. In all, the Centre owes the state over Rs 4,200 crore. The petition has been filed, said the state Advocate General Vinod Ghai. For the past many months, the government had been seeking the release of the funds.

The state had been reiterating that the RDF and market fee enabled the effective functioning of the procurement process. The government also said it had a prerogative in determining the rates for the market fee and the RDF for the purposes of procurement of foodgrain as it was recognised under the Constitution of India and supported by the Fixation Principles.

The Centre, on the other hand, had not released the fund (3 per cent was being paid) for four crop marketing seasons since 2021-22. As a result, the state government had claimed that Rs 3,637.40 crore was due towards them as the RDF. Before 2017, the RDF of 2 per cent and market fee of 2 per cent were allowed to Punjab.

In 2017, these statutory charges were increased to 3 per cent each. The Centre now wanted the state to accept a total of just 2 per cent of statutory charges.

The government said the Centre owed it Rs 571 crore towards the market fee. Earlier, Punjab was given market fee at the rate of 3 per cent, which was reduced by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution to 2 per cent. As a result, against Rs 1,514 crore due to the state, only Rs 943 crore had been paid as market fee.

Punjab’s stand had been that it contributed 21 per cent of rice and 31 per cent of wheat in the central pool for foodgrain. The state had been saying that to be able to contribute significantly towards national food security, including the Central Government’s public distribution system and procurement schemes, the state had developed a robust and dynamic agricultural infrastructure, which is unlike any other state. The state government also said the procurement policy of the Department of Food in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution specified that the procurement costs were to be reimbursed by the FCI as per the cost-sheets prepared by the department.