Govt may find it tough to recover dues from rice mills

Despite having announced a one-time settlement scheme, the Punjab government may not get back its dues from “defaulter rice millers”, several of which even sold their machinery years back and shifted to other businesses. (Representational Image/File)

Despite having announced a one-time settlement scheme, the Punjab government may not get back its dues from “defaulter rice millers”, several of which even sold their machinery years back and shifted to other businesses. Around 250 to 300 defaulters, most of them from Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Sangrur, Firozpur, collectively owe the state government Rs 2,000-2,400 crore. Most of these mills owe between Rs 5 crore and Rs 10 crore each to the government.

There are over 3000 rice mills in Punjab. Every paddy harvesting season, the state government’s procurement agencies supply paddy to these rice mills for milling (making rice from paddy). After the milling, a part of the rice produce is returned to the state government, which is further supplied to the central pool. Millers get milling charges from the government.

However, for years, these defaulter millers did not return the government quota after milling. “Instead of returning the government’s share, they sold it in the open market,” said a senior official in Punjab’s Food and Civil Supplies department. “Later, the government made a list of these defaulters and stopped supplying paddy to them,” he said.

Punjab Rice Millers Welfare Association president Rakesh Jain said he welcomed the “one-time settlement scheme”, which it was a long-pending demand. “Now, we will motivate millers to pay government dues and avail of opportunity for the closed mills ahead of expected bumper paddy crop this time, which could touch 160 lakh tonnes,” he said.