Many government-run rice mills have been allegedly fudging records to show they are supplying the required quantity of rice to the central pool from the paddy delivered to them under custom-milling and levy schemes.
A study by Gouri Shankar Jain, Right to Information activist, shows that the average output of a mill cannot be more than 55-57 kg of rice per 100 kg of paddy. “However, they [mills] show supply of 67-68 kg in their accounts, which is mandatory by Food and Public Distribution Department rules,” Mr. Jain told The Hindu .
Mr. Jain’s complaint alleging huge corruption in the financial dealings between government institutions and rice mills is part of an ongoing audit by the Comptroller and Auditor-General in eight major rice-producing States.
“Interestingly, government-run mills show income from paddy by-products [rice bran, husk and broken rice] in their account books, whereas private mills conceal it. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to understand why the government has not been formally notifying the rates being quoted by its own mills to ensure that private mill owners have to disclose their income accordingly,” he said.
“The gunny and plastic bags used for packaging do not come under the category of depreciation under the Income Tax Act. However, the government is paying up to 40 per cent depreciation on old and new bags to paddy-purchase institutions and rice millers.”
Another modus operandi of millers has been diversion of rice meant to be procured by government institutions for the public distribution system (PDS) to the black market. The CAG had over a year ago detected financial irregularities in Bihar during 2012-13. The report said non-delivery of custom-milled rice against paddy released to the millers in 38 districts had resulted in a loss of Rs.433.94 crore to the exchequer.
The CAG found out that in several cases, paddy was supplied to mill owners without taking back rice for the central pool, as required. Many millers defaulted on supply of rice. In March, the Economic Offences Wing of the Bihar police initiated investigations into the alleged loss of Rs.1,400 crore as millers did not supply rice. The State government identified over 2,000 defaulters.
