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by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The Government has imposed a nine rupee tax for each kilo of imported rice to safeguard local paddy farmers, Agriculture and Livestock Minister S.B.Dissanayake said yesterday.

The Minister said that during the past seven years, farmers encountered severe difficulties in selling their paddy. The CWE and Provincial Councils have not purchased even 5 per cent of the production of paddy farmers.

Under these circumstances, 95 per cent of the farmers had to sell a kilo of paddy at low prices between Rs.5 to 7. Paddy cultivation had been running at total loss during the past seven years, he said.

The Minister said the Rs.9 tax imposed on rice would help keep the market price of a kilo of rice from Rs.29 to 30. This would help the farmers to sell their products at concessionary rates without any hindrance.

In addition, taxes will be imposed shortly on the import of dry chillies, onions and Bombay onions to safeguard a large number of farmers.

He said permission has been granted to each trader to import 12,500 metric tonnes of rice. This limitation was imposed to avoid exploitation of farmers. This limitation will be lifted in the future. Now anyone can import rice paying the Rs.9 tax per kilo.

Minister Dissanayake said this nine rupee tax will continuously be imposed for two years. Therefore, the purchase of paddy locally would be more profitable to the traders.

Commenting on the increase in the price of rice, he said the paddy harvest will be reaped within 15 days. Therefore, this problem will be settled within the coming 15 days. With the imposition of this tax, farmers will be able to sell their paddy for more than Rs.15 a kilo, he said.

He said that farmers have to spend Rs.13 or 14 as a production cost for one kilo of paddy. In this situation, if paddy cultivation is to be make a profit making venture, one kilo of rice should be sold at Rs.38.

If measures can be taken to keep the production cost of paddy at Rs.10, one kilo of rice can be sold at Rs.31.50. For farmers to reach an income generating level, one kilo of rice should be sold at least at Rs.27 in the local market. Our objective is to keep the price of a kilo of rice over Rs.25, he said.

A program will also be introduced in future to protect the paddy production. The objective of this program is to keep the paddy at the residences of farmers and release them to the market when the prices of paddy are increased. This will avoid the exploitation of farmers by traders.

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