Bamboo in Orissa: Trade and Livelihood Perspective - Vasundhara

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All rights reserved by VASUNDHARA(www.vasundharaorissa.org). For any clarification, contact author at sunlit1968@yahoo.co.in Cost of extraction Govt receivables Royalty Silvicultural charges OFDC’s commission OFDC’s establishment cost Total Rs.750 Rs.600 Rs.100 Rs.50 Rs.200 Rs.1700/MT As seen in the above table, Rs.950 was proposed to be paid by the RMPs against receivables on the part of the govt and OFDC. However, the paper mills wanted this rate to be significantly reduced. The Empowered Committee tried to justify its price by comparing the sale prices in the neighbouring states (like, Rs.1700/MT in Chhattisgarh and Rs.2100/MT in MP 37 ). After further negotiation, the RMPs agreed to pay Rs.1500/MT 38 as per the following break-up(vide proceedings of the meeting of the Emp. Committee held on 6 th November 2004): Cost of extraction Govt receivables Royalty Silvicultural charges OFDC’s commission plus establishment cost Total Rs.750 Rs.500 Rs.75 Rs.175 Rs.1500/MT The Empowered Committee also decided that if the RMPs achieved beyond their targeted figure, then the rebate they would be getting would be shared by OFDC and the govt at 50:50 ratio; like, for ex., on Rs.20/MT, Rs.10 would be on royalty and Rs.10 on OFDC’s commission. 4. Bamboo for betel farming, construction work and tent houses: Long bamboo is the prime requirement for these purposes and cut-pieces are made thereof, as per need, by the purchaser side. Betel farmers of coastal districts are the major regular customers of this bamboo. Traders who sell it to them used to get their supplies earlier from various depots of OFDC(like Sorada-Gajalbadi area and Dasapalla), but now only three major supply routes are available for them as under: A. Legal supplies: • From Andhra Pradesh • From Khunta-Udala area B. Illegal supply: From Hindol-Narsinghpur area 37 average sale prices in these two states have been quoted 38 Actually Rs.750/MT only towards govt payables, since the RMPs would arrange on their own for bamboo working and hence would bear the cost of extraction. However, they would have to pay a sale tax @4% on the sale price, i.e., Rs.1500/ton. 77
All rights reserved by VASUNDHARA(www.vasundharaorissa.org). For any clarification, contact author at sunlit1968@yahoo.co.in Gopal Mohapatra, a businessman of Nayagarh is said to be the pioneer in ensuring supply from Andhra about 20 years ago. The advantages of purchasing bamboo from Andhra are many, like: • Cheaper price • Customer-friendly policy of the Andhra Forest Department • Hardly any need for bribing anybody. Salia bamboo is procured from Andhra. Each such standard piece costs about Rs.14 here as against Rs.18 to 19 for the same if obtained from OFDC. Hence, the betel farmers can get bamboo at a cheaper price. In fact, procurement from Andhra is said to have helped these farmers significantly particularly after the flood of 1982 which destroyed the local bamboo bushes on one hand, and dependency on OFDC was proving costlier on the other. The actual procurement price of a bamboo piece comes to less than Rs.2 in Andhra, but added to this are taxes of various kind plus transportation charges. To reduce the cost of transportation per piece, the traders try to load the trucks to the maximum possible limit for which they pay penalty charges (popularly known as ‘dala open; height’; i.e., the volume has crossed the limit on various sides) @Rs.800/truck a part of which is taken by the penalising officials unofficially(i.e., without receipt). Each truck-load may contain 3000 to 5000 thin pieces or 500 very thick pieces of long bamboo weighing about 12 to 13 tonnes. The bamboo from Khunta-Udala area that costs Rs.30/piece at the local depot is actually procured from the grower @Rs.25/piece. Added to this is the transportation charge @Rs.25/piece plus some other expenses like bribe demanded at check gates, etc.(if any), and hence the sale price at Kundhei(near Kakatpur) comes to about Rs.60/piece. This bamboo is not salia but sundarkani or some other species. Since 1 piece of sundarkani is equivalent to about 5 pieces of salia in terms of length and thickness, hence people do not hesitate to pay a higher price for it. Unlike industrial bamboo, supply of long bamboo from Khunta-Udala area is a round-theyear business since moisture loss is not a criterion in this case to affect the price and use at the end market. On an average, the rate of supply is about 10 truckloads per day, each containing about 600 to 700 pieces and weighing approx. 12-13 tons. The destinations are Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Pattamundai, etc., and there are more or less 20 traders of Khunta- Udala area involved in this supply network. Earlier some traders used to procure bamboo from Andhra and get their permit issued for delivery at Kolkata(West Bengal) so as to evade the sales tax to be charged on it in Orissa in case of a delivery in Orissa. Needless to say, they actually delivered their material in Orissa itself but saved some money showing the permit upto Kolkata. However, they were caught for their fraud after which this malpractice has almost stopped. Now some of these people have resorted to another alternative. They have ensured the supply of smuggled forest bamboo from the Hindol-Narsinghpur area either showing false certificates for tenant’s bamboo, or through some other means, which necessarily involves a good nexus with the local officials of Forest Department. This bamboo costs them less and hence they 78
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Bamboo in Orissa: Trade and Livelihood Perspective - Vasundhara

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