 bill no 47 of  2014 the national agricultural produce price commission bill, 2014 byshri raju shetti, mp abillto provide for the establishment of a statutory  autonomous commission for the purpose of ensuring minimum support prices to farmers for their agricultural produce and for matters connected therewith or incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the sixty-fifth year of the republic of india as follows:—short title, extent and commencement2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—definitions5 (i) "agricultural produce" includes paddy, wheat, sugarcane, millet, barley, ragi, madwa, cotton, maize, soyabean, rapeseed, mustard, peanut, coconut, sunflower, groundnut, safflower, sesamum, niger seed, gram, tur, urad, moong, masoor (lentil), peas, jute, cashew nut, pepper, turmeric, tobacco, potato, tomato, onion, mango, apple, orange, kinnoo, mousambi and other such foodgrains or commodity as may be prescribed;(ii) "commission" means the national agricultural produce price commission constituted under section 3;10(iii) "cost of cultivation" includes operating cost plus imputed value of family labour, market based rental value of land, interest on both working and fixed capital, transportation cost, marketing cost and insurance premium; and(iv) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act153  (1) the central government shall, as soon as may be, but not later than six months of the commencement of this act, by notification in the official gazette, constitute a commission to be known as the national agricultural produce price commissionconstitution of the national agricultural produce price commission(2) the commission shall be a body corporate by the name aforesaid, having perpetual succession and common seal with power to acquire, hold and dispose of property both movable and immovable and to contract and shall, by the said name, sue or be sued4 (1) the commission shall consist of:—20(i) (a) a chairperson;composition of the commission(b) a vice-chairperson;to be appointed, from amongst persons of eminence having special knowledge in the field of agricultural economics, by the central government;(ii) five members of parliament, of whom three shall be from lok sabha and two from rajya sabha, to be nominated by the presiding officers of the respective houses;25(iii) one member having practical experience in the field of agriculture with compulsory agricultural and rural background representing each state to be nominated by the central government in consultation with the respective state governments;(iv) one member representing the union ministry of agriculture;(v) one member representing the indian council of agricultural research; and30(vi) five members representing farmers to be appointed by the central government in such manner as may be prescribed(2) the salary and allowances payable to, and other terms and conditions of the service of the chairperson, vice chairperson and members of the commission, shall be such as may be prescribed35(3) the head office of the commission shall be at new delhi (4) the central government shall provide such number of officers and staff to the commission as are required  for its efficient functioning(5) the salary and allowances payable to, and other terms and conditions of the service of the officers and staff of the commission, shall be  such as may be prescribed405 (1) the commission shall perform the following functions:—functions of the commission(a) fix and declare the minimum support price of agricultural produce on the basis ofcost of cultivation plus fifty per cent margin on the cost of cultivation and the announcement of the same well in advance of the sowing season;45(b) ensure that the farmers get the minimum support prices fixed by it for theiragricultural produce;(c) recommend to the central government the measures for raising the standard of farming in the country, especially raising farm productivity and farm profitability;(d) recommend to the central government the measures for improving the living conditions of farmers;(e) ensure that the prices of the agricultural produce do not fall below the statutorily fixed minimum support price fixed by it due to undesirable activities of traders and middlemen after the post-harvest period;5(f) give wide publicity to the minimum support prices of the agricultural produce determined by it; and(g) keep the farmers aware of the prices of agricultural produce in the international market10(2) the commission shall, while discharging its functions, consult state governments and such other agencies as it thinks fit, which are responsible for procurement, supply, distribution, trade and other activities in relation to agricultural produce so as to ensure payment of minimum support  prices to the farmers156 the central government shall be bound to accept and implement the minimum support prices announced by the commissioncentral government to implement the recommendations of the commission7 where a farmer fails to sell his agricultural produce in the open market at minimum support price determined by the commission, the central government and the state governments shall purchase the agricultural produce from the farmer at the price fixed by the commissioncompulsory purchasing of agricultural produce by the central and the state governments208 the central government shall, after due appropriation made by parliament  bylaw in this behalf, provide adequate funds to the commission for carrying out the purposes of this actcentral government to provide funds9 if any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this act, the central government may make such order or give such direction, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as may appear to be necessary or expedient for removing the difficulty:25power of the central government to remove difficultiesprovided that no such order shall be made after the expiry of the period of two years from the date of the commencement of this actact to have overriding effect10 the provisions of this act and the rules made thereunder shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force30power to make rules11 (1) the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act35(2)  every rule made under this act shall be laid, as soon as may be after it is made, before each house of parliament, while it is in session, for a total period of thirty days which may be comprised in one session or in two or more successive sessions, and if, before the expiry of the session immediately following the session or the successive sessions aforesaid, both houses agree in making any modification in the rule or both the houses agree that the rule should not be made, the rule shall thereafter have effect only in such modified form or be of no effect, as the case may be; so, however, that any such modification or annulment shall be without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under that rule40 statement  of  objects  and  reasonsit is an open secret that agriculture sector is reeling under severe crisis in india the share of agriculture in gross domestic product (gdp) of the country is constantly and unabatedly falling year by year since independence in 1950, the share of the agriculture in gdp was 51 per cent and in the year 2009, it has come down to a mere 141 per cent and that too without any substantial decrease in the number of the people dependent on it still sixty per cent of our population  is directly dependent on agriculture it is shocking that the policy-makers, the leaders, the bureaucracy,  etc are apathetic to the fact that in the last thirteen years, more than 3 lakh farmers have committed suicide across the country even today, in some states the trend of committing suicide by farmers is continuing according to the annual data released by the national crime records bureau in the year 2009, around 17,368 farmers committed suicide ie every hour, two of our farmers committed suicide, and that too when we pat our back for achieving a gdp growth rate of 9 per cent per annum there are several reasons behind their shocking misery but one of the major reasons is nonavailability of remunerative prices of their agricultural produce the middlemen, hoarders, money lenders, etc are exploiting them for the last 65 years the commission of agricultural cost and prices  (cacp) under the ministry of agriculture fixes the minimum support price (msp) of a few agricultural commodities this commission has no legal standing and it often happens that the msp determined by the cacp is not remunerative for farmers perhaps it would not be incorrect to say that the cacp has failed in its duty to ensure remunerative prices to farmers it has no proper mechanism to calculate the cost of production of agricultural produce and, therefore, the msp announced by it is far below the cost incurred by the farmers to raise their crops hence, it is felt that if a fully autonomous statutory commission is established to fix the minimum support prices of the agricultural produce with certain guidelines, the misery of the farmers of the country would be solved to some extenthence this billnew delhi;raju shettijune 25, 2014 financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for the constitution of a national agricultural produce price commission clause 4 provides for salary and allowances of the chairperson, vice chairperson and members of the commission clause 5 provides, inter alia, for giving wide publicity to minimum support price of the agricultural produce by the commission clause 7 provides for compulsory purchasing of agricultural produce by the central and the state governments clause 8 provides for payment of adequate funds to the commission for carrying out the purposes of the act the bill, therefore, if enacted,  would involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a recurring expenditure of rupees five hundred crore per annum would be involveda non-recurring expenditure of about rupees  one hundred crore is also likely to be involved memorandum  regarding  delegated  legislationclause 11 of the bill empowers the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill the rules will relate to matters of detail only the delegation of legislative power is, therefore, of a normal character———— a billto provide for the establishment of a  statutory autonomous commission for the purposeof ensuring minimum support  prices to farmers for their agricultural produce and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto————(shri raju shetti, mp)gmgipmrnd—774ls(s3)—01-07-2014