MSP for rabi crops increased

Wheat support price raised by Rs 20 per quintal.

The government today fixed the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat at Rs 1,100 per quintal, an increase of a meagre Rs 20, or 1.86 per cent, over last year’s figure. This was informed after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

In contrast, it had earlier increased the MSP of two paddy varieties by 11-12 per cent, as the output of domestic kharif rice was estimated 18 per cent lower at 69.45 million tonnes (mt). The MSP for Grade-A and common varieties of paddy were increased by Rs 100 a quintal to Rs 980 and Rs 950, respectively. Last week, the government had also announced a bonus of Rs 50 per quintal on both these varieties.

The higher paddy MSP is expected to boost the government’s procurement of rice. However, the situation in wheat is different, since wheat crop is expected to be normal and the government pool has a stock of 28.45 million tonnes as on October 1.

The MSP of barley has been increased by Rs 70 to Rs 750 per quintal, while that of maize has been raised by Rs 30 to Rs 1,760 a quintal. The price for safflower has been increased by Rs 30 to Rs 1,680 a quintal. The price for other rabi crops such as lentil and rapeseed mustard has been kept unchanged.

In another decision, CCEA approved splitting of an oil and gas block falling in Assam and Nagaland into two so that exploration, which previously could not be completed in Nagaland, could now be taken up. CCEA approved “splitting of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) for Block AA-ON/7 in two parts, to consider separate exploration period of Nagaland part of the block,” an official statement said.

The 1,934-sq-km block was awarded to Canoro Resources in late 1990s. About 1,126 sq km area of the block was in Assam and the remaining 808 sq km in Nagaland. Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL) for Assam portion of the block was granted on March 27, 2001, and that for Nagaland portion was granted by the state government on August 8, 2006.

While exploration was completed in the block’s Assam portion, no work could be carried out in Nagaland before the expiry of the seven-year exploration phase on March 26, 2008.

Technology transfer
Prior permission of the government will no longer be required for payment of various fees for technology transfer into the country like royalty, use of trademarks or brands. Aimed at promoting the transfer of modern technology into the country, the Cabinet today placed all such payments on the automatic route without any restrictions, in contrast with the earlier practice where such payments had a cap.

So far, automatic approval was permitted only for foreign technology transfer involving payment of lump sum fee of $2 million and royalty of 5 per cent on domestic sales and 8 per cent on exports.

Road projects
The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure today approved the four-laning of 443 km of roads — spanning across West Bengal, Bihar, and Haryana — at a cost of Rs 4,226 crore. The Cabinet has already approved four- and six-laning of 4,000 kilometres of highways under Phase-IIIA of the National Highway Development Programme on a build, operate and transfer basis in March 2005. Under this phase, a total tentative length of 12,109 km is to be done at an estimated cost of Rs 80,626 crore.