Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has urged the Centre to fix the provisional incidental costs at a reasonable level, equivalent to last year, to facilitate smooth paddy procurement in the State.
In a letter to Union food and consumer affairs minister Ramvilas Paswan, Patnaik on Friday said, the State has already submitted the accounts up to the year 2015-16.
However, finalisation of accounts is a time consuming process and revision of the incidental rates at reasonable level should not be contingent to finalisation of up-to-date accounts.
If payments are not made, there is a possibility of disruption in Rabi paddy procurement.
According to Patnaik, Odisha which had started from a modest procurement of 0.60 lakh MT of paddy in the year 2003-04 has reached a level of 52 lakh MT in 2016-17.
During the current year, the State government has already procured 32 lakh MT of padddy and procurement of rabi paddy is expected to begin from May 1.
"Despite being in the fag end of the Kharif season, we have not been able to pay the incidental costs as the Government of India has fixed rates at an extremely low level compared to market rates, which is not acceptable," wrote Patnaik.