Karnataka govt tables Bill to regulate sale of agricultural produce

The Congress government on Wednesday introduced a Bill in the Assembly that proposes to regulate the sale of agricultural produce, undoing the previous BJP regime's changes that allowed farmers to sell wherever they saw fit.

The Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) Bill 2023 will replace the law that was introduced by the previous BJP government three years ago.

The law in force now removed restrictions on trading agricultural produce in market yards.

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“Because of this, several farmers who trade outside market areas other than the market yards are prone to exploitation by traders since no regulatory mechanism exists," the Bill piloted by Agricultural Marketing Minister Shivanand Patil argued.

"With trade happening outside these market yards, revenue of the government has also been affected. These yards used to contribute around Rs 125 crore to the revolving fund prior to the (2020) amendment and now it has slid below Rs 60 crore,” the Bill said.

The Bill further added that farmers would benefit by the way of competitive and fair price for their products sold under the Unified Market Platform.

“Farmers may not be aware of the prices prevailing in different markets in the state, thus they may not be able to make suitable decisions on what prices to charge on their produce. Apart from farmers there are over 1 lakh people such as porters (Hamals), weighmen, cartmen, assistants working with traders, commission agents and stockist shops whose livelihood is dependent on these yards,” the Bill contended.

GST Bill

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah introduced the Karnataka Goods Services Tax (Amendment) Bill 2023 with an intent to include penal provisions applicable to e-commerce operators in case of contravention of provisions relating to supply of goods and services made through them by unregistered persons or composition of tax payers.

The Bill also aims to decriminalise offenses by increasing monetary threshold from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore except for offenses related to issuance of invoices without supply of goods or services or both.