UP farmers can now sell crops anywhere, don’t have to pay mandi tax on 46 vegetables, fruits

The Yogi government has exempted highly perishable items such as mangoes, watermelons, cabbages and bananas from the market tax.

Representational image | ANI

New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government has amended the Uttar Pradesh Agricultural Produce Mandi Act, 1964, to exempt 46 fruit and vegetable varieties from the mandi (market) tax while also allowing farmers to sell their produce near their farmlands or anywhere else in the state. 

In a state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Wednesday, the government approved the Uttar Pradesh Agricultural Produce Market (Amendment), Ordinance, 2020, exempting perishables such as mangoes, watermelons, cabbages and bananas among others from the market duty.

The ordinance also allows farmers to sell their crop outside designated markets, in effect allowing them to do business even near their farmlands and at the door-to-door level.  They can also sell their produce at erstwhile mandis or markets by just paying a nominal user charge as opposed to the earlier mandi duty.

According to the amendment, the state will facilitate the formation of private mandis and designate silos, cold storages and warehouses as marketplaces. For traders, the government has decided to introduce a single licence provision that will allow them to buy and sell agricultural produce from any mandi within the state.

The ordinance estimates that the tax exemption on the 46 items will cost the state exchequer around Rs 124.58 crore in revenue. 

Move aims to aid farm sector amid pandemic

The Yogi Adityanath government hopes the ordinance will help farmers reeling under the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown. 

“These amendments in the mandi rules will ensure seamless trade of fruits and vegetables as the purchase of produce will also happen at village level from the farmers,” Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi told ThePrint. 

Sahi added that the amendment will introduce the farmer-consumer marketing system to the private sector. “This will lead to making the market competitive in the interest of farmers because the earlier provision of procurement taking place only in mandis has been abolished now.”   

With the decision, Uttar Pradesh joins a number of states that have changed their respective state mandi rules to facilitate direct procurement from farmers during the lockdown. 

Just days earlier, Madhya Pradesh had passed the Madhya Pradesh Krishi Upaj Mandi (amendment) Act, 2020, which will facilitate direct procurement of agriculture produce from farmers’ doorstep by food processing companies, exporters, and wholesalers. 

Similar to Uttar Pradesh, the MP government legislation allows a single licence for trading in any mandi within the state, designating warehouses and silos as new private mandis and also facilitating the setting up of private mandis.

Karnataka and Tamil Nadu had earlier allowed co-operatives and farm produce organisations (FPOs) to trade in farm produce outside designated markets. The Rajasthan government had also declared primary agriculture cooperative societies as wholesale markets. 

Other states such as Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Gujarat have also allowed direct marketing without a licence, with Uttarakhand declaring storage units such as silos, warehouses, cold storage units and processing plants as mandis similar to existing markets in the state.