Trade tax hits Agra`s dal mills
The 4.5 per cent trade tax has reduced incomes to merely Rs 2,500-3,000 per metric tonne
Vishal Sharma
New Delhi/ Agra. There was a time when the “dal mills” of Agra catered for the processing needs of faraway states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Today, this industry is just a sorry remnant of its prosperous past.
Once spread all across the town with 150 units working in tandem to process over 400 tonnes of pulses a day and a clientele spread throughout the country, Agra’s dal mill industry has now shrunk to barely 30-35 units processing little more than 75 tonnes of pulses.
The repercussions of the weakening pulse of this “pulse-processing industry” can be felt in the machine-tool forging units in the Nunhai industrial area of the town, where production of dal mill equipment has dropped to less than a quarter of what was produced earlier. These units now lay more stress on producing flour mill equipment.
According to Agra Dal Mill Association General Secretary Dau Dayal, the drastic transformation that has taken place over the last 25 years is the result of the entire dal mill industry, processing indigenous varieties of pulses grown locally, being run in an unorganised manner.
The influx of “branded” hybrid varieties of pulses entering the market over the past two decades through large companies based in states like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh that used to buy processed pulses from Agra’s dal mills earlier has also affected the industry, he added.
Dal mills were categorised as small-scale industries (SSIs) and exempted from sales tax but while the mills in other states got the benefit of no taxation, the Uttar Pradesh government imposed a 4.5 per cent trade tax on the dal mill business which reduced the income of the mill owners to merely Rs 2,500-3,000 per metric tonne.
Except for about three dozen large dal mills, the rest shut down, unable to sustain the heavy losses they were incurring with the rising prices of fuel and the huge power crisis in the state.
He said until the government removed the injudicious trade tax on the dal mills in the state like it removed the 3/7 Essential Commodities Act from the trade, Agra’s dal mills would not be in a position to face the competition from the mills set up by the Agra-based industrialists just across the state’s borders.
He said as Agra was located on the borders of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, the town’s industrialists always had an option to move their units to the neighbouring states if the tax burden imposed by the UP government became unbearable and the remaining dal mill owners could also avail of this option if the government did not pay heed to their demand of an exemption from trade tax.
Once spread all across the town with 150 units working in tandem to process over 400 tonnes of pulses a day and a clientele spread throughout the country, Agra’s dal mill industry has now shrunk to barely 30-35 units processing little more than 75 tonnes of pulses.
The repercussions of the weakening pulse of this “pulse-processing industry” can be felt in the machine-tool forging units in the Nunhai industrial area of the town, where production of dal mill equipment has dropped to less than a quarter of what was produced earlier. These units now lay more stress on producing flour mill equipment.
According to Agra Dal Mill Association General Secretary Dau Dayal, the drastic transformation that has taken place over the last 25 years is the result of the entire dal mill industry, processing indigenous varieties of pulses grown locally, being run in an unorganised manner.
The influx of “branded” hybrid varieties of pulses entering the market over the past two decades through large companies based in states like Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh that used to buy processed pulses from Agra’s dal mills earlier has also affected the industry, he added.
Dal mills were categorised as small-scale industries (SSIs) and exempted from sales tax but while the mills in other states got the benefit of no taxation, the Uttar Pradesh government imposed a 4.5 per cent trade tax on the dal mill business which reduced the income of the mill owners to merely Rs 2,500-3,000 per metric tonne.
Except for about three dozen large dal mills, the rest shut down, unable to sustain the heavy losses they were incurring with the rising prices of fuel and the huge power crisis in the state.
He said until the government removed the injudicious trade tax on the dal mills in the state like it removed the 3/7 Essential Commodities Act from the trade, Agra’s dal mills would not be in a position to face the competition from the mills set up by the Agra-based industrialists just across the state’s borders.
He said as Agra was located on the borders of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, the town’s industrialists always had an option to move their units to the neighbouring states if the tax burden imposed by the UP government became unbearable and the remaining dal mill owners could also avail of this option if the government did not pay heed to their demand of an exemption from trade tax.
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