Rs 40,000-crore CCL for paddy stuck in dispute

The Rs 40,000-crore cash credit limit (CCL) to purchase 200 lakh metric tonnes of paddy, expected to arrive in Punjab’s mandis within a fortnight, is stuck in a dispute between the Food and Supply and Finance Departments.

While the Finance Department wants the state procurement agencies to bear the cost of paying for the gap between the CCL and the actual cost of procurement, the food department insists that it has limited resources, and the Finance Department should pay for it.

The state’s CCL demand for Rs 40,000 crore to purchase paddy will be okayed after it clears the dues (gap between the CCL and the actual cost incurred in procuring paddy in 2017) with the banks. Punjab has to pay Rs 1,200 crore to a consortium of banks.

For the past four years, getting the CCL approved from the Centre and later the RBIgets stuck in controversies, mainly because banks accuse Punjab of gaps in use of CCL. However, it is for the first time since 2014 that the issue has been caught up in a dispute between the two departments.