Government to amend 65-year old Essential Commodities Act to enable better price realisation for farmers

New Delhi: The government will amend the 65 years old Essential Commodities Act to enable better price realisation for farmers, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday.

Agriculture food stuffs including cereals, edible oils, oilseeds, pulses, onions and potato will be deregulated, FM said.

Announcing the third tranche of measures related to Atmanirbhar Bharat, Sitharaman said that the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 was enacted in days of scarcity.

“Need to enable better price realisation of farmers by attracting investments and making agriculture sector competitive,” she said.

The amendment, besides deregulating production and sale of food products, will provide for no stock limit to be imposed on any produce.

A stock limit will be imposed only under very exceptional circumstances like national calamities, famine with a surge in prices.

Also, no stock limit shall apply to processors or value chain participants, subject to their installed capacity or to any exporter subject to export demand she said announcing the third tranche of economic relief package.

FM’s announcements focused on 11 measures today. 8 of them related to infrastructure related to agriculture and allied activities and the rest three pertained to governance and administrative reforms.

Sitharaman has said that the Rs 20 lakh crore economic package is to spur growth and build a self-reliant India. The package was finalised after consulting various stakeholders.

It may be noted that PM Modi in his speech had emphasised that bold reforms are needed to make the country self-reliant so that the impact of crisis such as COVID can be negated in future that ranges from supply chain reforms for agriculture, rational tax system, simple and clear laws. He also pointed that measures must be in place to attract investment and further strengthen ‘Make in India’.