The former Deputy Chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia criticised an Agriculture Ministry order earlier this year to cap the royalty and sale price of cotton seed.
The Ministry, in March, used its powers under the Essential Commodities Act — a legislation that allows the government to determine the price of commodities including seed — to declare that seed technology companies couldn’t charge more than Rs. 49 as royalty and seed companies charge no more than Rs. 800 for a 450gm packet of cotton seed.
While the State governments have previously fixed the price of seed, this was the first time the Centre had intervened and also propounded an order on May 18 that specified a tranche of new rules to govern the licensing of seed technology. “If there are problems with availability of seed, there are laws under the plant varieties act to control its price,” said Mr. Ahluwalia, who was chairing a discussion panel, “but the Essential Commodities Act is not the way to do it.”
The manner in which the Ministry passed its order made it look like “an arbitrary administrative decision” that didn’t go well with India’s recently-announced National Intellectual Property Rights policy, he added.
To be sure, the Ministry rescinded its May 18 order and put it in “draft mode” to receive public comments up to 90 days. The discussion was organised by the Delhi-based think tank — Research and Information System for Developing Countries — and included representatives from the National Seed Association of India and the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises.