Chhattisgarh marketing co paid Rs 845 cr excess amount: CAG

Chhattisgarh State Marketing Federation (MARKFED) has paid an "excess" amount of Rs 844.68 crore as interest to the banks since cash credit could not be cleared within the specified date during thekharifmarketing season (KMS) 2010-15,the CAG said in a report today.
MARKFED procured 32.5 metric tonne of paddy and obtained Rs 54327.36 crore cash credit (CC). It paid an interest of Rs 2707.4 crore to banks during the season 2010-15.
However, there was non-clearance of CC within every KMS year for which an extra amount of Rs 844.68 was paid as interest by the state-run marketing agency, it said.
The report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India on general, social and economic (non-PSUs) sectors for the year ended March 31, 2015 was tabled in the State Assembly.

The reason for outstanding CC beyond KMS werenon- disposalof paddy within the season besides non-recovery of outstanding amount from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Chhattisgarh State Civil Supplies Corporation (CGSCSC), delay in submission of loss claim, non-reconciliation of advances, blockage of funds and delay/non-deposition of rice in FCI and CGSCSC by the millers, it said.
"All these factors had led topaymentof avoidable interest," it added.

The report said the State Government incurred loss due to excess payment of milling charges. "The State Government incurredlossof Rs 591 crore due to payment of milling charges beyond the norms fixed by the Government of India."

The State Government, while accepting the audit observation, said the milling charges were not revised by the Centre since 2005.
In order to encourage the miller and for timely milling, additional expenditure was incurred, the report said.
"Fact remains that as per instruction issued for fixation of provisional rates of custom milled rice (CMR) by the GoI, only 67 per cent of the raw rice was to be deposited by millers and rest 33 per cent by-products were for millers to keep which was also an incentive for millers."
Besides, paddy worth Rs 278.36 crore was damaged due to lack of covered storage facility and delay in milling. Shortage of paddy in the storage centres beyond permissible limit resulted inlossof Rs 96.80coreto the state exchequer, it said.

As many as 33 millers did not deposit rice worth Rs 74.53 crore even after expiry of milling schedules.
District Marketing Officers failed toreconcile the accounts with District Central Co-operative Banks and Primary Agriculture Co-operative Societies from 2010-11 to 2014-15, which resulted in unadjusted advances of Rs 11,729.18 crore, the report said.