The government is seeking Cabinet approval for an additional Rs. 2.5 billion to buy paddy from the current Yala harvest, Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe said, NewsFirst reported.
Speaking at an event in Kahatagasdigiliya, Anuradhapura, the Minister said a Cabinet paper seeking the money was to be submitted the same day.
What has already been spent
Samarasinghe set out the year’s allocations: Rs. 10 billion for paddy purchases in the Maha season, and Rs. 6 billion already released for the current Yala season. The new request would take Yala spending to Rs. 8.5 billion if approved — still below the Maha figure, but a 42 per cent increase on what has been released so far this season.
The Rs. 6 billion matches the allocation announced when the Paddy Marketing Board began buying the Yala harvest in July at guaranteed prices of up to Rs. 140 a kilogram.
Loans to millers who could not buy
The Minister said President Anura Kumara Dissanayake had held discussions with large-scale millers, small-scale millers and Paddy Marketing Board officials to work out a solution, and that the government had not stopped at discussions but moved to a funding mechanism.
Many small and medium mill owners were willing to buy paddy but lacked the capital, he said. The government has introduced interest-free loans for mill owners able to process up to 25,000 kilograms of paddy a day, so they can buy directly from farmers. Nearly 60 rice mills in Anuradhapura have already received the financing, allowing them to buy at the guaranteed price of Rs. 120 a kilogram for Nadu, on an eight-month repayment term. The facility extends an earlier loan scheme for millers.
Not reported
NewsFirst does not say how much paddy the Rs. 6 billion has bought so far, how far short of demand it fell, or what volume the additional Rs. 2.5 billion is expected to cover. It does not report the total value of the interest-free loan facility, how many mills nationwide have drawn on it, or what happens to farmers whose stocks remain unsold. No other verified newsroom had filed on the Rs. 2.5 billion request at the time of writing.
