Vijayawada: Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has requested Union commerce minister Piyush Goyal to allocate ₹150 crore from the tobacco board to the state govt to manage the ongoing burley tobacco purchases. He said that the state govt is purchasing about 20 million kg of burley tobacco by spending nearly ₹300 crore as traders did not pick up the stocks leaving the growers into deep trouble. Union minister Goyal visited chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s residence in Undavalli on Sunday and held discussions on various issues. The chief minister explained that the state govt set up tobacco purchase centres at seven locations in Bapatla, Guntur, Palnadu, and Prakasam districts to avoid further delay causing distress among the farming community. “The state govt deployed state marketing agency-markfed to purchase burley tobacco from growers and it was expected to cost around Rs 300 crore. The state’s burden would greatly come down if the Centre grants at least Rs 150 crore from the surplus revenues of the tobacco board,” said Naidu.He had also requested the Union minister to bring burley tobacco production and marketing under the purview of the tobacco board with the amendment of tobacco board Act. He said that tobacco board is only regulating FCV tobacco while the burley growers are being misled by the private players resulting in crisis when there are no buyers. He observed that bringing the cultivation of white and black burley tobacco too under the tobacco board jurisdiction would be help regulate the crop properly. Chief minister urged Goyal to reconsider reducing the import duty on oil palm to 10%. He explained that reducing import duty is causing palm oil farmers in the state to receive unfair prices and suffer significant losses. Chief minister highlighted that the decision to reduce import duty could hinder the goals of the National Mission on Edible Oils (NMEO) set by the centre. He suggested the union minister to hold discussions with the US regarding the duties imposed on aqua exports. “The 27% duty imposed by the US on seafood is impacting eight lakh aqua farmers in Andhra Pradesh. The Centre should exert pressure on USA to reduce the burden to relieve aqua farmers,” said Naidu. He had also urged Goyal to reduce GST on mango pulp from 12% to 5%. He said that the state govt had already brought the issue to the attention of the Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
