By IANS,
Chandigarh : Wheat procurement in Punjab hit a new high Friday when the figure this season crossed the 10 million tonnes mark.
The procurement this season has beaten records in recent years. The central government had set a procurement target of 8 million tonnes of wheat this year and the state has already procured one-fourth more than that.
The procurement season will end officially May 31 and wheat is still arriving in the grain markets.
“The Punjab government has very smoothly and successfully done the wheat procurement this year despite initial hurdles faced due to delay in start of the process. The procurement has been done in the shortest time,” Punjab’s Food and Supplies Minister Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon said.
He said with higher wheat production of 2 million tonnes this year, Punjab farmers had earned an additional income of Rs.200 billion ($5 billion).
The minister said the state government had earned a total revenue of Rs.12.5 billion, which was almost double the collection made in 2007. According to him, this is an all-time record.
Kairon added that nearly Rs.3.8 billion of tax was earned on the higher procurement and difference of revised minimum support price (MSP).
He said over 9.34 million tonnes of wheat was contributed by Punjab to the central pool so far.
Kairon said the procurement this year was the highest ever except for 2001-02 when 10.05 million tonnes of wheat was procured.
The highest procurement was made in the border district of Ferozepore this year, the minister said.