Chennai: Launching a scathing attack on the Congress and the opposition parties over the three farm legislations, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said these statutes were pending for long and were aimed at enhancing farmers' income.
Addressing reporters here, she recalled the Congress had promised the same in its election manifesto and now speaking in a different voice.
“Are you cheating the farmers? Is it because others have done it, you are opposing it?” she posed a question to Congress.
On the benefits of the legislation, she pointed out that with these laws, the farmers can decide on whom to sell for what price. “We have removed the restriction on inter-state marketing. The Agricultural Marketing Committees in the states have been left untouched,” Sitharaman explained.
The FM went on to add, "Farmers have to incur 8.5% cess for selling their produce at the APMCs but if they sell outside they need not pay any cess. Besides, they need not be dependent upon middlemen.
Asked about parties taken into consideration, Sitharaman denied that the statutes were rushed through and said all stakeholders from all states were consulted and their inputs are taken into consideration before they were drafted.
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Allaying apprehensions about the scrapping of the MSP regime, she made it clear that it would continue. “It was there, it is there and it will continue to be there,” Sitharaman said adding that earlier, it was given only for paddy and wheat while 20 other crops were not extended the same.
“Those who gave support price only for paddy and wheat are now crying foul and raising apprehensions that the government would do away with MSP,” she quipped.
Answering a question as to whether small farmers could face the prospect of those corporates entering into an agreement with the farmers reneging on the promise, dragging them into a long drawn out court battle, Sitharaman did not rule out such an eventuality. “We need not go that far at this stage. It is possible but such a situation might not arise. The law was drafted taking these into account. The District Collector and other officials could settle the issues locally. For, it is the revenue officials who guide the farmers on the number of agreements and the kind of contracts which could be entered into in a particular area,” she explained.
While making it clear that the Government would extend viability funding for building infrastructural facilities for Farm Producers Organisations (FPOs), she said a market in a village need not be a 'physical one, it could as well be a digital one'. Yet, she refused to respond to a question on whether the buyer alone could decide the price for the produce.
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