APMC market yards to stay closed on Aug 25 to protest market fee

Seek scrapping of market fee for trading within APMC yards

@hepzia

Mumbai: All the Agricultural Produce  Market Committee (APMC) yards in Maharashtra will be go on a day-long token strike on August 25 to protest continued levying of a market fee, the Chamber of Association of Maharashtra Industry and Trade (CAMIT), an umbrella body of various trading organisations in the state, informed. There are 295 APMC yards in the state that act as a link between the farmers and the markets. 

Though the union government had abolished the market fee levied on traders within APMC yards recently on June 10, 2020 traders in Maharashtra, especially those operating from within the APMC yards in the state do not enjoy the benefit. This was because while the Center may have scrapped the fee, those operating from within the precincts of APMC yards continued to be governed under the Maharashtra Agriculture Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 1963. The traders are now demanding that the state amend its Act to abolish the fee and create a level playing field for all traders. Traders operating within APMC yards currently pay 1% of their transaction value as market cess.  

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Traders stated that this has created unfair market conditions as those traders operating from within the APMC yards like Navi Mumbai continue to pay the market fee while those operating outside the APMC market are free from any such charges. The market fee was abolished by the union government as part of its policy of One Nation, One Market by introducing the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020. The new policy allowed farmers the freedom to sell their produce directly to the consumer. Earlier, farmers could sell their produce only through the APMC yards. 

Chairman of CAMIT Mohan Gurnani stated in a note that many other states like Punjab, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh had already amended the APMC Act in their states to pass on the benefit to their traders.

They also stated that they had already taken up the issue with the chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar but to no avail. 

The issue assumes significance as the traders face imminent threat from Multi-National Companies (MNCs) and big corporate houses now eyeing a bigger role in this sector.