<p><strong>CLARIFICATION NEEDED WHERE THE LICENSE IS TO TRADE WITHIN THE MARKET YARD</strong></p> <p>‘APMC Market Yard’ is a small marketplace for a large area of few SQ kilometers. The stipulated area for a yard is called ‘APMC Market Area’. Farmers residing in the area can not bring even 10% of their non-perishable agro products to this small market yard. They sell their non-perishable industrial raw materials directly to traders or nearest factories to get a better price and to reduce unnecessary transport cost. But the buyer has to give a levy on these purchases even he has not used the ‘APMC Market Yard’. However, this levy is not charged on interstate purchases or on imports!</p> <p>Recently, some states have made changes in the licensing regulations in the Act to give a fresh license to trade in the ‘APMC Market Yard’ instead of renewing old licenses. Even then, the officials of the APMC are collecting the levy outside the ‘APMC Market Yard’. Small farmers are the sufferers as they can not show any documents during the road transport. Officials who stop the vehicles argue that the farmer or trader is liable to penalty as the ‘APMC Market Yard’ is the only place for the purchase or sale of notified agro products for the stipulated area unless the product has entered through interstate or import billing.</p> <p>If that is true, what that means for a poor farmer or a supporting trader of the state?</p> <p>– If a father wants to sell a few quintals of areca nuts to his son, why both of them should go to the ‘APMC Market Yard’?</p> <p>– If a trader urgently needs some essential items which are notified under the APMC act from another trader of his locality, why should they go to the ‘APMC Market Yard’?</p> <p>– Why should a village agro business move to another place?</p> <p>– If a farmer wants to sell a few quintals of raw cashew nuts to the nearest processor, who will benefit by sending them to the ‘APMC Market Yard’ for a small quantity, even though the processor’s 90% procurement is through interstate or imports for which he uses only phone calls and emails.</p> <p>– Global B2B in non-perishable agro products which are mostly used as industrial raw material is through contacts and orders. Not by taking goods to a place of sale and then taking back the unsold items back to home.</p> <p>In such cases, the intention of law may be to levy APMC charges in the ‘APMC Market Yard’ only. Even then, the levy on the purchase turnover will become a big hurdle for the smooth rollout of the nationwide single market under GST.</p>