Telangana: Paddy bids get good reax, govt plans to net 6k cr from auction
By Roushan Ali
The tenders invited by the govt through Telangana State Civil Supplies Corporation to sell 35 lakh metric tonnes of paddy stocks received a good response with bidders quoting a better price than what was quoted earlier when tenders were called for by the previous BRS govt.
The govt is expecting to net 6,000 crore from paddy auction and reduce the loan burden of the corporation which was 58,000 crore when the Congress govt took over.
The average price quoted by bidders is 1,879 per quintal excluding the gunny bag price. The five-member IAS/IPS officers’ committee, which formulated the tender guidelines, made it mandatory on the bidders to pay the gunny bag price separately, resulting in the govt getting nearly 2,000 per quintal.
Of the six successful bidders, two were central govt agencies. However, the names of bidding firms have been kept confidential for now.
“Financial bids were opened and the response was satisfactory. We were able to eliminate the syndicate of rice millers from the bidding process by taking several measures. Clauses in tender conditions like bidders should have a local registration office so that govt can take action if anything goes wrong and submission of GST registration number results in only genuine bidders participating,” said a senior official of the civil supplies department.
The BRS govt had procured 64 LMTs of paddy of the last yasangi season from the farmers. Though tenders were invited in Aug last year, they were cancelled as low prices were quoted by the bidders. Tenders were again called for in Oct 2023 but the process had to be stalled with the election to the state assembly being announced.
Many rice millers stored the paddy outdoors and a substantial quantity of stocks got discoloured and soaked in rains. Rice millers were exerting pressure on the govt to sell the stocks. Though the govt incurred up to 2,300 per quintal towards procurement, transportation and other charges, nearly 2,000 per quintal is considered as a good price for this one-year-old paddy, an expert said.
Sources said IPS officer Devendra Singh Chauhan, who was appointed commissioner of civil supplies corporation and principal secretary to the civil supplies department in Dec 2023, played a crucial role in eliminating the syndicate of rice millers.
This article has been republished from The Times of India.