Looking at developing HSN codes for certain varieties of rice: Official
HSN codes for certain rice varieties to enable exports of those which are traditionally not consumed by the people in the country, a senior official said on Tuesday. At present, all categories of non-basmati white rice are banned for exports.
According to a presentation of the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), they are working on separate HSN codes for GI (Geographical Indications) rice varieties like Red rice, Black rice and Kalanamak rice.
In international trade parlance, every product is categorised under an HSN code (Harmonised System of Nomenclature). It helps in the systematic classification of goods across the globe.
Rajesh Agarwal, Additional Secretary in the commerce ministry, said that non-basmati rice has about 40-50 varieties and when the government bans the export of that, all the varieties such as Sona Masuri, Govind bhog, Kalanamak, or normal white non-basmati rice get halted.
«New HSN code for some other varieties of rice is something which is the demand of the industry...So how do we differentiate, that is the debate we are having internally.
»We are trying to see whether is there a merit in doing so because as a country on one hand we will not like to impose bans on rice, which we are not worried too much about, but at the same time, we need to see that there is enough incentives for farmers to keep on producing the normal varieties of rice also which is the core staple diet of the country," he told reporters here.
Agarwal said there is a need to
