India: Board to Buy Excess Tobacco from Growers

Source from:  The Hindu 02/18/2016

Tobacco growers in Mysuru and Hassan districts, the key growing areas in the State, can exult as the Tobacco Board, on the diktat of the Centre, will soon start purchasing excess Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco produced by registered and unregistered growers for the 2015-16 Karnataka crop season.

A circular from the Tobacco Board to regional managers and auction superintendents in the State, a copy of which is available with The Hindu , said each registered grower has to pay Rs. 2 a kg and 7.5 per cent of the proceeds of the sale to the tobacco fund for the excess FCV produced by him or her to the extent of 10 per cent of the quota authorised for the crop season.

Likewise, Rs. 2 a kg and 15 per cent of the proceeds of the sale should be contributed to the fund by an unregistered grower.

All the auction superintendents have been directed to allow the sale and purchase of excess tobacco with immediate effect if growers agree to comply with the conditions.

Importantly, registered and unregistered growers have been asked to file an application-cum-undertaking with details of stocks of the excess or unauthorised production and declare that they will not resort to excess/unauthorised cultivation and operation of their unregistered/unauthorised barns in future.

The quota for sale of excess tobacco should be allowed only to growers whose stocks have been certified by the field staff concerned. The auction superintendents shall ensure sale of tobacco with 5 per cent variation as far as possible.

Sale of unauthorised tobacco as excess tobacco by grower to avoid penalties shall not be allowed. Any major variations, resulting in financial loss to the government, will be viewed seriously, said Ch. V. Maruthi Prasad, Auction Superintendent, Tobacco Board, in the circular. The Board said the authorised quotas of growers will get reduced to the extent of excess tobacco sold by him or her from 2016-17 onwards. Enditem