Kolkata, Nov 19 (PTI) The West Bengal government is not sure about getting back earlier power to control prices of essential commodities such as onion, potato, oilseeds, cereals and pulses after the withdrawal of the three farm laws, a senior official said on Friday.
The Essential Commodities Act, 1955 used to empower states to impose stock limits and restrict movement of essential commodities. State governments had lost this power after the Act was amended by the Centre last year.
The amended Act is one of the three contentious farm laws which were at the centre of protests by farmers for the past year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced earlier in the day that the laws will be repealed and the process required to do so will be completed in the Winter session of Parliament beginning later this month.
Whether or not the states will get back the same power they used to enjoy earlier to control stock limits and movement of essential commodities will depend on the “wordings” of the Bill which will be tabled to withdraw the Act, said the official who declined to be quoted.
“As soon as the amendments were passed, the commodities were out of the state’s ambit and we lost the power to act. We had a sharp spike in inflation in certain commodities. Edible oil prices had jumped 50-100 per cent. Mustard is not import-dependent but the price of mustard oil shot up 100 per cent,” the official said.
The 2020 amendments removed restrictions on stocking certain essential commodities. They empower the central government to regulate the supply of foodstuff only under extraordinary circumstances such as war, famine, exceptional price rise and grave natural calamities.
According to the amended Act, stock limits can only be imposed if there is a 50 per cent rise in retail prices of non-perishable agricultural foodstuff over those prevailing in the preceding 12 months or average retail prices of the last five years, whichever is lower.
The industry seems to be divided over the prime minister’s announcement that the laws will be repealed.
While Bharat Chamber of Commerce (BCC) claimed that withdrawing the laws will act as a break in the reform chain, Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) asserted that it is a good step keeping the larger interest of people in mind.
“Scrapping firms laws would act as a serious break in the reform chain that the agri and food processing sectors have been envisaging during the pandemic to come back strongly. During the Covid period, agro-food export increased significantly. The multiplier effects of schemes like Productivity Linked Incentives and others would not be realised, as estimated,” BCC president Ramesh Kumar Saraogi said.
“We at ICC consider it to be a good step keeping larger interest in mind. However, in the interest of farmers, the agriculture sector needs reforms for productivity, rapid development of infrastructure, new technologies and market linkages. The dialogue should continue in this direction,” ICC president Vikash Agarwal said. PTI BSM NN NN
