The Hindu Business Line : Agriculture market fee collections rise

DESPITE the prevailing drought conditions, there has been a substantial increase in the market fee proceeds of the Agricultural Market Committee of Hyderabad (AMCH) during 2002-03.

AMCH had collected a market fee of Rs 10 crore last fiscal as against Rs 6.07 crore in the previous year from various markets functioning under it here.After a long time, AMCH has collected a market fee of Rs 77.36 lakh from Pro Agro Seed Company Ltd and Rs 9.67 lakh from Hybrid Seed International. The two companies are the licencees of AMCH and are liable to pay the market fee on the transactions pertaining to their business in seeds.

However, according to AMCH Person-in-charge, Mr Raja Hussain, the two companies evaded payment of market fee since 1997-98. An inquiry was conducted on the transactions of both the companies following which an amount of Rs 87.03 lakh had been collected from them towards market fee from 1997-98 to 2002-03.

Mr Hussain said the increase in market fee collections was mainly due to plugging loopholes in fee collections. For instance, when he enquired with the Commercial Tax Department regarding the turnovers declared by the traders, it was found that the traders had reported a turnover of Rs 87 lakh less to the Marketing Department. He then saw that the Secretaries of the market committees raised an additional demand for Rs 87 lakh.

There are four well-regulated and centralised daily markets and an equal number of sub-markets functioning under AMCH for the transaction of grains, fruits and vegetables. Last year, AMCH collected a market fee of Rs 3.25 crore from the Gaddiannaram fruit market as against Rs 2.45 crore in the previous year.

Similarly, the fee collected from the Mahaboob Mansion grains market stood at over Rs 1.3 crore last year as against around Rs 1 crore in 2001-02.

The market fee collections from the Gudimalkapaur vegetable market and the Malakpet sub-market registered an increase of Rs 3.2 lakh and Rs 4 lakh, respectively.

In the case of Kishangunj sub-office, the fee collection rose from Rs 1.49 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 4.12 crore in 2002-03.

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