Rice Factories Amendment tabled in Parliament

-errant millers to front security deposit
MINISTER OF Agriculture Robert Persaud on Thursday tabled the Rice Factories (Amendment) Bill in the National Assembly.
This amendment will ensure that rice farmers are paid, since delinquent millers will be mandated to lodge a security deposit which can be used to meet their obligations to farmers, should the need arise.
The Bill, when passed, will amend the Rice Factories Act of 1998 by inserting subsections (1A) to (1E) to Section 4 of the Principal Act.
The new Subsection (1A) seeks to make provision for submitting a statement of paddy and a security deposit for the payment of paddy sought to be purchased, along with an application for a license as a manufacturer of rice to the General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB).
According to the Bill, Subsection (1B) provides that the security deposit may be utilized for the compliance of the conditions, the fulfillment of obligations of the failure by the manufacturers to pay the value of paddy to any producer after the expiry of sixty days from the date of the supply of paddy.
Subsection (1C) seeks to provide for the quantum of security deposit, noting that the security deposit shall be ten percent of the value of the paddy purchased during the previous year and this must be placed in a non-interest bearing account of the Board. The deposit can also be a bank guarantee for 25 per cent of the value of the paddy purchased in the previous year.
According to the legislation, if a miller over the preceding three years has been consistently fulfilling his obligation, that miller will not be made to comply with the security deposit provision. Also, the Board may forfeit a security deposit or any part of it to secure monies specified in Subsection (1B) to ensure compliance with the conditions of the license, and for the fulfillment of obligations under the Act of Regulations, including the payment of any fee, fine, penalty or other monies.
Speaking to this newspaper on the Bill, General Secretary of the Guyana Rice Producers Association (GRPA), Dharamkumar Seeraj said that the situation is one that warrants the Bill, and that while there are many millers who meet their obligations to farmers, some large ones do not most of the time.
He said that based on historical records, the GRDB will make it compulsory for certain companies to lodge the deposit to cover a percentage of their sales. “So, in the event of anything happening, money could be paid to the farmers,” he said.
According to Seeraj, in order to avoid having to be included on the list of those millers considered delinquent, they should ensure that they have a record of timely payments to farmers for paddy supplied.

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