Kisan Andolan Day 15: Government Guarantees on MSP & Tax on Private Mandis but Farmers Say No

The kisan andolan has entered into day 15 after farmers unions rejected Government’s proposal on MSP and stayed firm on scrapping farm laws. As per reports, the Centre on Wednesday offered significant concessions, including a written assurance on continuation of minimum support price (MSP)based on procurement and ensuring parity in transactions inside and outside existing Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis. However, the farmer unions rejected the proposals, several of which will require amending two of the new laws, as the government said.

As per sources, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare forwarded the 20-page proposals to the farmer leaders around 2.30 pm, and included a written assurance on MSP. The move came a day after Home Minister Amit Shah met 13 representatives of the unions protesting against the farm laws.

“By amending the Act, it can be provided that the state government can implement the system of registration of private mandis. Also, the state government can fix the rate of cess / fee, to be collected from such mandis, up to the rate of cess / fee applicable to the existing APMC mandis,” say the proposals of center.

“If any dispute arises under the new farm laws, farmers can be allowed to approach civil court", said the proposals sent on Wednesday.

What is MSP/ MSP Kya hai

The MSP(minimum support price) is an agricultural product price set by the Government of India to purchase directly from the farmer. This rate is to safeguard the farmer to a minimum profit for the harvest, if the open market has lesser price than the cost incurred.

However, currently MSP does not have any legal backing. The three new farm laws also do not have any provision for MSP. That's the reason why farmer's are protesting vehemently against the farm laws.