Rice Quota Allocation Stayed Till 10 Aug by Delhi HC
The Delhi High Court stayed on 26 July the
allotment of export quotas to individual firms against the recent
Directorate-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) notification detailing the norms
for shipping out 10 lakh tonnes (lt) of non-basmati
rice.
“It is directed that no allotment of quota shall be
made till the next date of hearing,” a division bench of the Court said in its
order on Tuesday, while issuing a show cause to the DGFT for reply by August
10.
The DGFT, however, on Wednesday, went ahead with
allocation of quotas to individual exporters in terms of its notification,
dated July 19. The total 10 lakh tonne exportable quantity has been divided
among 82 firms. The allotments, against applications invited through e-mail on
July 21 and 22, were made on a first-come-first-serve basis and subject to a
maximum individual quota of 12,500 tonnes.
Similar Sounding Names
The list of 82 successful allottees
include Adani Wilmar, State
Trading Corporation of India and Marubeni India Pvt. Ltd, besides a host of
firms with similar sounding names: LMJ Overseas Ltd, LMJ Commercials Pvt Ltd,
LMJ Logistics Ltd, LMJ Construction Pvt Ltd and LMJ Services Ltd; LGW Ltd and
LGW Industries; and ETC Commodities (India) Pvt Ltd and ETC Agro Processing
(India) Pvt Ltd. All of them have bagged export quotas of 12,500 tonnes each.
The DGFT notification seeking inviting applications
for export quotas had led to an estimated 1,000 intents being received within
five minutes of the window opening at 1000 hours on July 21. On the whole, some
7,500 applications were received by the time DGFT closed its window the
following day at 1700 hours.
The process of e-mail applications and selection of
allottees on a first-cum-first-serve basis came under
criticism from many exporters, especially the unsuccessful ones. The All-India
Rice Exporters' Association claimed that it was prone to faulty quota
allocation since the generation, transmission and receipt of applications was
dependent upon server speeds and internet connection efficiencies, “which are
beyond the control of the general applicant”.
Annexure 1 List of 82 successful allottees with IEC Code and quantity allocated (03 pages).
Annexure-2 1st Waiting
list