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Department of Commerce, Government of India, launched the Price Stabilisation Fund Scheme in April 2003 for the benefit of growers of Tea, Coffee, Natural Rubber and Tobacco. The objective of the Price Stabilisation Fund Scheme is to provide financial relief to the growers when the prices of these commodities fall below a specified level.
The scheme is based on the principle of contribution from the growers and from the Government depending upon boom / normal / distress years, with a provision for withdrawal by the growers during the distress year. The contribution of the participant growers as well as that of the Government is credited to the savings bank account of the participant growers opened for the purpose with any nationalized bank. The contribution of the participant grower / Government in the growers’ account and withdrawal there from is decided with reference to the price spectrum band which is fixed and announced every year.
The Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) Trust, Department of Commerce, Government of India, has announced the Price Spectrum Band for the year 2004 for Rubber, Coffee and Tea. As no tobacco grower was enrolled under the scheme during the year 2004-05, Price Spectrum Band for tobacco has not been fixed. The Price Spectrum Band for each commodity has been calculated on the basis of Seven Years’ Moving average of International price for the commodity. The annual average domestic price during 2004 was Rs.62.42/kg for Tea, Rs.34.93/kg for Coffee-Robusta, Rs.72.16/kg for Coffee-Arabica and Rs.55.71/kg for Natural Rubber. Year 2004 has been categorized as Boom/ Normal/ Distress year for each commodity on the basis of the relationship of average annual Domestic Price to the Price Spectrum Band. Based on the above methodology, the year 2004 has been categorized as Boom year for Rubber and Normal year for Coffee Robusta, Coffee Arabica and Tea.
On the basis of Price Spectrum Band 2004, 9521 Coffee growers and 2777 Tea growers would receive financial assistance of Rs.47.61 lakh and Rs.13.89 lakh respectively from the PSF Trust during the current year.
During 2004 -2005, 8226 Coffee growers and 1861 tea growers received financial assistance of Rs.82.26 lakh and Rs.9.31 lakh respectively, under the Scheme.
SB/MRS
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