Court order on arecanutimport price stayed

Division Bench of Calcutta High court stays Single Judge Bench direction to DGFT

A Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court has stayed a Single Judge Bench order directing the Director-General of Foreign Trade to withdraw its order hiking the base price for import of arecanut, according to a press released issued by Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Co-operative Limited (CAMPCO) here on Monday.

DGFT appeal

The release said that the DGFT had filed an appeal in the High Court against the Single Judge Bench order. CAMPCO said that its president Kankodi Padmanabha had approached Union Minister for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman as arecanut prices were coming down following the Single Judge Bench order.

15 p.c. drop

Prices of white arecanut crashed by about 15 per cent a kilogram on a single day on Friday while farmers had expected the domestic market to stay stable, as they were given to understand that imports would come down.

CAMPCO believed that the crash could be due to increase in quantity of imports.

DGFT, functioning under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, could not implement its August 14 notification hiking the minimum import price of arecanut from Rs. 110 a kg to Rs. 170 a kg as it had not been published in the Gazette of India.

This was said to be linked to the recent order by the Calcutta High Court.