Bhubaneswar: Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation (OSCSC), the major procuring agency of the Government of Odisha is under financial stress as it is yet to receive Rs 9653 crore as provisional subsidy from Government of India.
Further, advance subsidy due to the State for the quarter ending June, 2024 is Rs 495 crore, which is also yet to be released from the Centre, officials said.
It has a two-fold impact on the financial health of the Corporation. First, the additional interest incurred because of delay in release and non-release of subsidy remains un-recouped adding to its deficit year after year.
Secondly, due to delay in release of subsidy by Government of India, the corporation is facing continuous financial hardship for arranging working capital for paddy procurement, the Corporation officials said.
Over the years, the additional interest incurred till date because of delay in release and non-release of subsidy comes to around Rs 7,500 crore which remains un-recouped and should be paid by Government of India, they said.
As delay in release of funds would severely affect the ensuing paddy procurement operation, the State Government officials are worried over it and are pursuing the Centre to ask the FCI to accelerate the receiving the surplus rice of the State for the on-going KMS 2023-24.
The State Government is hopeful that the Centre will consider the demand favourably.
In the current Khariff Marketing Season 2023-24, the State is likely to have a surplus of 24.66 lakh MT of rice, of which 9.62 lakh MT delivered so far.
Odisha has adopted the decentralised procurement (DCP) system from the Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2003-04. Since then, the State has been undertaking MSP operations for procurement of paddy in decentralized mode. The decentralized procurement has improved the outreach of MSP support to paddy growers.
The rice milled from the paddy so procured is being used under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and other welfare schemes of the Government and the surplus rice is being delivered to the Food Corporation of India (FCI).