Centre allows growers in A.P. to sell excess FCV tobacco without penalty for 2023-24 crop year

Centre allows growers in A.P. to sell excess FCV tobacco without penalty for 2023-24 crop year. The nod comes following the initiative of BJP MP from Rajahmundry Daggubati Purandeswari, says Tobacco Board Chairman Yashwanth Kumar. The Centre also accepted subvention of 3% interest on loans availed of by the farmers for remodelling, or repairing the existing barns.

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has accepted the request of the tobacco farmers from Andhra Pradesh to sell their excess produce without penalty for the 2023-24 crop year.

Though the Tobacco Board had authorised farmers to grow 142 million kg (MKG) of FCV tobacco for the crop year, the farmers had produced more than 206 MKG. “Hence, they faced problem while auctioning the excess tobacco,” Yashwanth Kumar Chidipothu, Chairman of Tobacco Board, told The Hindu.

The penalty on the excess produce will be 5% per kg plus ₹1.

Revealing the decision of the Union Minister for the benefit of the farmers during a stakeholders’ meet held recently, Mr. Yashwanth Kumar said BJP Member of Parliament from Rajahmundry Daggubati Purandeswari helped the farmers get these approvals.

Mr. Yashwanth said the authorisation for sale of excess tobacco and exemption from penalty were applicable to farmers in Andhra Pradesh, and not Karnataka.

He said that the farmers in Karnataka had already benefited twice, whereas the growers in A.P. got the chance with respect to authorisation to sell excess tobacco only once.

The Union Minister had also accepted the proposal to increase the strength of employees in the Tobacco Board from 248 to 419, he said.