35 meetings of MSP panel held, report awaited: Tomar

New Delhi, December 5

Union agriculture minister Narendra Tomar on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha that the government constituted panel on MSP regime effectiveness had met 35 times and its report and recommendations were awaited.

Tomar was responding to a supplementary query on Minimum Support Price in the Lok Sabha by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

Chowdhury wanted to know whether the government was thinking of legalising the MSP regime as demanded by farmers who had agitated against three agriculture reform legislations forcing their revocation in 2020.

Tomar said the BJP government was working to implement 200 of the 201 recommendations made by the MS Swaminathan Committee which presented its report in 2007 under former PM Manmohan Singh.

“One of the major recommendations was fixing MSP at 50 % profit over cost of production. Congress was in power from 2007 to 2014 but did not implement this suggestion. I am happy to report that it was implemented after PM Narendra Modi came on power in 2014. As against Rs 1 lakh crore spending on procurement on MSP under Congress today we are spending Rs 2.28 lakh crore,” Tomar said.

The minister said the MS Swaminathan Committee was formed when late Atal Behari Vajpayee was the prime minister but the report was submitted in 2007 under the UPA government under Manmohan Singh.