Kolhapur: State finance minister Ajit Pawar announced in the interim budget on Friday that govt would continue with its Rs 5 per litre subsidy for the milk procured by dairies from the farmers.
State govt started granting the subsidy after the prices of the milk dropped mainly because of less demand for byproducts like butter and milk powder.
State govt has told the dairies to pay Rs 27 per litre to the farmers in order to receive Rs 5 per litre subsidy.
This way farmers will end up getting Rs 32 for every litre of milk.
Around 70 lakh litres of milk is converted into milk powder that is used in bakeries and confectioneries. According to an estimate, 20,000 tonnes of unsold milk powder is available with the companies in Maharashtra.
Farmer leader Raju Shetti said, “The farmers are facing Rs 8 per litre loss owing to increased cost of cattle feed, among others. We had demanded Rs 7 per litre subsidy to enable the farmer make at least Re 1 per litre profit. We still welcome the decision, but request state govt to make it compulsory for the firms making milk powder to buy the milk at the assured price.”
Shetti said few days back, the Centre had issued a notification on importing butter and milk powder.
“The Centre is importing milk powder. State govt should approach the Centre to withdraw the decision, else the provision of subsidy will be futile,” said Shetti.
Source: Times of India