Supplyco burdened in debt; Onam kits only for yellow card holders

Thiruvananthapuram: With only a month left for Onam, Supplyco continues to be in debt as the corporation fails to make payments for items purchased in the past. Suppliers have turned their back due to non-payment and many products are now out of stock. 

It has been principally decided to limit Onam kit distribution to yellow card holders. The estimated cost per kit is Rs 450. This would require special allocation of funds. The matter will be taken up for consideration in the Cabinet meeting. 

Supplyco has dues amounting to Rs 2000 crores pending from the government. Despite the food ministry’s request for an immediate release of Rs 1500 crores, the finance department has only allocated Rs 250 crores. Food department officials said that the issue will be resolved this week. 

Supplyco has stocks of only subsidized items like coconut oil, sugar, coriander, urad dal (uzhunnu), etc. For goods purchased earlier, the corporation owes suppliers an amount of Rs 600 crores. Suppliers hesitated when e-tenders were called to procure out of stock items. 

According to the food department, private suppliers from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra will soon restock the products. Andhra Pradesh has been approached to solve the rice shortage.

Due to existing arrears, rice suppliers did not cooperate as expected to the e-tenders. It is in this situation that the Andhra Pradesh government was approached to provide two lakhs metric tonnes of rice, food department authorities said. The central government has also been approached for an increase in the food grain allocation. 

If the government fails to pay dues to Supplyco, it may affect the Onam market. The unavailability of subsidized goods in Supplyco may cause the price of essential commodities to rise exponentially.