About 30,000 fair price (FP) shop dealers in the State have been waiting for their commission towards distribution of free rice since June.
The State and Central governments have supplied free rice to the card-holders in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the dealers have not yet been paid commission till date.
According to information, the dealer network serves more than 1.47 crore ration card-holders in the State through 28,354 FP shops.
The Central government has extended an additional allocation 5 kg rice per person per month under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) to all the beneficiaries covered under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) ration cards, and Priority Household (PHH) ration cards under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013.
The Central government has been extending the facility since March 29. The State government has extended a similar facility.
So far, rice has been distributed in 10 phases — five spells by the Central government and five spells by the State government. Now, the 11th phase is under way.
But the dealers have not been paid the commission since June. The government has to pay ₹38.66 crore per month to the dealers. In two spells, the State government has credited the commission through the Supply Chain Management (SCM) into the accounts.
The dealers, however, say that the system is not useful, and wanted the government to credit the amount into their bank accounts directly.
“Payments through the SCM is not beneficial as it is not possible to draw money. The government has Aadhaar and account details of every dealer,” says A.P. Ration Dealers’ Welfare Association president M. Venkat Rao.
“The issue has been taken to the notice of the higher-ups in the A.P. Civil Supplies Corporation and the Civil Supplies Department,” he says. “Circulars were issued on July 20 and August 28. But the orders are hardly implemented in letter and spirit. The commission has been credited only to about 10,000 dealers,” he says.
When contacted, Civil Supplies Director Dilli Rao says the process of crediting the commission into the banks accounts has already started and payments are also being made.
“There are some issues such as missing Aadhaar number and bank account details. In some cases, real dealers are not running the shops. So, there is a delay in such cases. Regarding payment of commission by the Centre, the State government has to take a decision,” he says.