UP: Mandi tax on 46 fruits, vegetables abolished

LUCKNOW: In the first ever major agriculture reforms aimed at providing different marketing platforms to farmers and saving their exploitation at the hand of big traders and middlemen, the Yogi government on Wednesday not only ended the condition of bringing the farm produce to state mandis, but also scrapped the mandi tax and open private mandis for the benefit of small and marginal kisans.
The agriculture department has enlisted 46 fruits and vegetables which have been freed from the age-old clutches of 'mandis' and wholesellers as growers are now free to dispose of their produce at fields itself without paying any tax. This would not only save farmers from paying a mandatory 2% mandi tax, but would help them reduce 15% handling losses which they have to face in loading and unloading of their produce at 'mandis'. Besides, farmers would also save the money involved in the transportation of their produce to mandis.
The state government abolished certain provisions in the existing Uttar Pradesh Krishi Utpadan Mandi Act through an ordinance 2020 passed at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi announced a multi-pronged strategy for providing marketing platforms to farmers. He also released a list of 46 vegetables and fruits on which no mandi tax will be applicable and the mandatory condition of selling only through mandis was withdrawn.
Shahi told TOI that small and marginal farmers, growing fruits and vegetables, had to come to major mandis to dispose of their produce. “They had to pay 2% mandi tax and and bear the cost of transportation from their village to mandis. Besides, they also lose about 15% of their produce in handling,” Shahi said.
For the first time, the government has also invited the private sector -- individuals as well as owners of cold storages and warehouses -- to set up a farmer-consumer plartform, a foreign concept, which will allow vegetable growers to sell their produce at new small markets near their fields and villages. They would no longer be required to visit 'mandis' to dispose of their produce.
So far, in the name of farmers' welfare, the focus was on increasing production which most of times caused glut in the market, leading to exploitation of small farmers. For the first time the government has addressed the farm-fork gap by providing better marketing platforms to growers and boositing the food processing industry which would consume the farm produce, offering better remuneration to farmers.
In another marketing reforms, now owners of cold storages and warehouses, who were not allowed to sell the stored items from their premises, can do so from their units.
Thirdly, said the minister, in order to de-congest mandis, the government has decided to open farmer-consumer markets near farms and villages which will again prove beneficial to growers.
Meanwhile, principal secretary, agriculture, Devesh Chaturvedi claimed that these were the much awaited marketing reforms which would add nearly 20% of the total cost of produce to farmers' kitty.