Rice traders urge govt to correct export policy anomalies

Rice exporters today hailed the government's decision to put on hold exports of non-basmati rice following a high court order and urged the Commerce Ministry to correct the anomalies in the policy, including lower shipment price fixed by it.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the Commerce Ministry, today stayed its July 27 order relating to allocation of one million tonnes of non-basmati rice export quota following the court directives. "It is a welcome step.

Hopefully, DGFT will review the export policy and correct the mistakes earlier pointed by us," All India Rice Exporters Association (AIREA) President Vijay Setia told PTI. Prem Garg, the Managing Director of Shri Lal Mahal, said the petitioner, a private rice company, would withdraw the case if the Commerce Ministry changes its export policy and issues a new notification.

Setia demanded that the export price should be increased to at least USD 550 per tonne for ensuring that only those varieties capable of fetching better realisation is shipped outside the country. Besides, he also sought that DGFT should withdraw "faulty" conditions laid down for making shipments.

On July 11, the empowered group of ministers decided to lift over three year-old ban on non-basmati rice. The decision was notified by the DGFT on July 19 with minimum export price (MEP) at USD 400 per tonne. DGFT laid down several conditions like exporters having to register their contracts on a first-come-first-serve basis and the application for exports being for a maximum of 12,500 tonnes and the same to be received through email on  July 21-22.

 Lower MEP and these conditions were opposed by the association alleging the move would favour a few. "Giving such a short time indicates that applications for quota allotment can be made only by those who had prior intimation and not the trade in general," Setia had said. Meanwhile, a private rice firm went to the High Court, which on July 26 ordered the government "that no allotment shall be made till the next date of hearing".

While the court had stayed the allocation, by the time the order to this effect reached DGFT on July 27, the process of allotment of export quota had already been completed. While the DGFT has sought opinion of the Law Ministry in this regard, it had to stay the operation and implementation of the allotment.