 bill no 124 of  2012 the spices board (amendment) bill, 2012 byadv pt thomas,  mp a billfurther to amend the spices board act, 1986be it enacted by parliament in the sixty-third year of the republic of india as follows:—1  (1) this act may be called the spices board (amendment) act, 2012short title and commencement(2) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notificationin the official gazette, appoint10 of 19865omission of section 162 section 16 of the spices board act, 1986 (hereinafter referred to as the principalact) shall be omitted3 section 28 of the principal act shall be omittedomission of section 28 statement  of  objects  and  reasonsthe spices board act, 1986 provides for constitution of a board for the development of export of spices and for the control of cardamom industry including the control of cultivation of cardamom section 16 of the act empowers the central government to fix minimum and maximum price of cardamom and also control the distribution of cardamom to protect the small and medium cardamom growersas per rule, the entire small cardamom has to be routed through auctions and the growers are not allowed to sell the cardamom in the open market, except to dealers licensed by the spices board over a period of time, dispute arose between the spices board and the e-auctioneer over the minimum bid value in cardamom auction as agreement could not be reached between the spices board and the auctioneer, the auction of cardamom has been totally stopped which has adversely affected the small and the medium cardamom growersthe small cardamom is the only cash crop controlled by such stringent guidelines and these rules force the growers to resort to the auction process thus restricting the opening up of alternate channels to sell their produce as the major market places of cardamom are confined to certain geographic pockets, the number of dealers who actively involved in the trade of small cardamom in the primary market is limited and this add on to their bargaining power thus, the growers are forced to place "all their eggs in one basket" as against the principles of the open market economythe dynamics of small cardamom trade in the global market place has evolved with time and to remain competitive in the global markets, there is a need to promote free trade of this commodity and device alternate channels for the domestic marketing of small cardamom along with removal of the rules which restrict the domestic marketing and free sale of small cardamom the bill, therefore, seeks to omit sections 16 and 28 of the spices board act, 1986 with a view to do away with the penal provision for contravening the provisions of section 16 of the actnew delhi;pt  thomasnovember 6, 2012 annexure extract from the spices board act, 1986(10 of 1986) chapter iv certificate for export of spices16 (1) the central government may, by order notified in the official gazette, fix in respect of cardamom of any description specified therein—power to control price and distribution of cardamom(a)      (b)      (2) without prejudice to the generality of the powers conferred by sub-section (1), any order made thereunder may provide—(a)      (b)      28(1)     (2) any person who attempts to contravene, or abets the contravention of, any order under section 16 shall be deemed to have contravened that orderpenalty for contravention of order relating to control of price, etc———— a billfurther to amend the spices board act, 1986————(adv pt thomas, mp)gmgipmrnd—3300ls(e)(s3)—19-11-2012