By Navendra Seoraj

MILLERS who owe huge sums of money to rice farmers in 2016 will not be granted operating licences.The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) had, sometime ago, initiated this measure against millers in order to get millers to pay rice farmers what they owed them.

A miller who has not been granted an operating licence is legally debarred from exporting produce until outstanding sums due farmers have been paid. The Rice Factories (Amendment) Act 2007 states: “The licensee’s total debt owed to producers shall not, at any given time, exceed five per cent of the licensee’s gross turnover for the preceding calendar year, ending on 31 December (inclusive of that date), unless the licensee notifies the Board in writing as soon as the total debt owed by the licensee to producers exceeds the level specified above, and gives the Board the reasons for this.”

It added: “Upon being notified, the Board gives the licensee written approval (subject to any conditions that the Board thinks fit) for that total debt to exceed that level for a specified period, not exceeding three months from the date of the approval; and at the end of the specified period, the total debt owed by the licensee to producers (should) no longer exceed that level.”

In a telephone interview with the Chronicle, GRDB General Manager Nizam Hassan disclosed that some of the millers have already started making payments, but are yet to meet the criterion in order to get their licence.

“Millers who owe above five per cent are banned from exporting their produce,” he explained.

Last year, 58 rice millers received their operating licence; and, so far, only 29 of them have been licensed in 2016. Hassan said this initiative has been very effective, because prior to this, rice millers were blatantly refusing to pay rice farmers for their paddy, and now there has been an influx of payments, though no miller has as yet met the criterion for being issued an exporter’s licence.

Farmers have, in the past, resorted to many measures, including protesting, in order to receive their money.
Farmers even explained that they had to employ other methods in order to gain a passive income. Some have even expressed anguish at having to lose their belongings because of failure to repay loans owed to banks. This, they said, was because millers owed them, in some cases, millions of dollars for paddy they had provided the millers.

Guyana Rice Producers Association (RPA) General Secretary Dharamkumar Seeraj said he welcomes any action taken by the GRDB to assist farmers in getting paid.

Seeraj also said that farmers have been owed since early last year, hence it is time they receive payments owed to them.