Aavin, the Tamil Nadu government’s cooperative of milk producers, on Thursday announced that the procurement price of milk has increased in the state. The revision of rates comes after three years. With the latest revision, one litre of cow’s milk in Tamil Nadu will be procured at Rs 35 and buffalo milk will cost Rs 44, per litre.
Although the increase in the procurement prices is set to benefit over 4.2 lakh farmers attached to 9,345 primary cooperative societies, the government’s decision to increase the price for full cream milk sold in orange packets (meant for commercial consumption) from Rs 46 to Rs 60 has not gone down well. The price of milk sold in blue and green packets (meant for local consumption) has not been changed.
The decision to increase the price of milk used for commercial purposes has invited criticism from several political leaders. K Annamalai, the BJP’s Tamil Nadu chief, tweeted a video of DMK’s state minister for milk and dairy development, SM Nasar, who pinned the blame for increasing milk prices to the imposition of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on milk by the Centre.
Taking a dig at Nasar, Annamalai said the dairy minister of the incompetent DMK regime is the one who doesn’t even know milk is exempted from GST. “They should rollback the milk price hike and not tell lies irresponsibly,” the BJP leader tweeted.
Meanwhile, responding to Annamalai’s remarks, a DMK senior leader, TKS Elangovan, told India Today, “GST is put on all packed materials, including food. Annamalai thinks that milk is sold in cups and tumblers, it is the packed milk that is being sold by Aavin. The prices have been revised only for milk sold in orange packets, which is used for commercial purposes. When the Union government increases tax on food materials, Annamalai should say that fixing tax on food materials is wrong, but instead he is trying to target DMK for political gains. Annamalai’s agenda is to speak against DMK.”
Earlier, while clarifying about the GST on milk, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said fresh milk and pasteurised milk are fully exempted from GST. Further, milk products such as curd, lassi, butter milk and paneer are also exempt from GST if sold in any form other than those pre-packaged and labelled.
A nominal GST of 5 per cent applies to curd, lassi, butter milk and paneer, when sold in pre-packaged and labelled form and Ultra High Temperature (UHT). Further, a GST of 12 per cent applies to condensed milk, butter, ghee and cheese. GST exemptions and rates apply uniformly across states.
