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MADHYA PRADESH KRISHI UPAJ MANDI (ONLINE TRADING AND E-PLATFORM LICENCE) RULES, 2016

MADHYA PRADESH KRISHI UPAJ MANDI (ONLINE TRADING AND E-PLATFORM LICENCE) RULES, 2016

MADHYA PRADESH KRISHI UPAJ MANDI (ONLINE TRADING AND E-PLATFORM LICENCE) RULES, 2016

 

PREAMBLE

In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) and clause (vi) of sub-section (2) of Section 79 read with clause (ix) of section 32-A of the Madhya Pradesh Krishi Upaj Mandi Adhiniyam, 1972 (No. 24 of 1973) the State Government hereby makes the following rules and the same have been previously published as required by sub-section (1) of Section 79 of the Act, namely:-

CHAPTER-I

Rule - 1. Short title and commencement.

(1)     These rules will be called "Madhya Pradesh Krishi Upaj Mandi (Online Trading and E-platform Licence) Rules, 2016" and shall come into force from the date of their publication in the Madhya Pradesh Gazette.

Rule - 2. Definitions.

(1)     In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires,-

(a)      " Act" means the Madhya Pradesh Krishi Upaj Mandi Adhiniyam, 1972 (No. 24 of 1973);

(b)      "Additional Director" means Additional Director of the Madhya Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board appointed under the Act;

(c)      "Assaying" means the qualitative or/and quantitative analysis of notified agricultural produce against set of parameters as may be specified by the State Government from time to time.

(d)      "Authority or officer" means such authority or officer as may be appointed by the State Government to grant or renew the Online trading Licence under the Act;

(e)      "Board" means the Madhya Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board, established under the Act;

(f)       " Commercial transaction" means any transaction made by traders for sale, purchase, processing for ancillary sale, purchase or storage or sale to consumers of agricultural produce within the market yard or out of market yard, within the market area or out of market area, within the state or out of the State, in which the payment of market fees has already been made to any market committee of the State and information pertaining to payment of market fees has been submitted to concerned market committee in prescribed form;

(g)      "Deputy Director" means Deputy Director of the Madhya Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board appointed under the Act;

(h)     "Director" means the Director and includes the "Managing Director" of the Madhya Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board appointed under the Act;

(i)       "Electronic-platform" (E-platform) means a corporate entity which can sue and be sued acting as a market functionary as defined in clause (j) of section 2 of the Act and is engaged in conducting e-trading including e-auction and providing its ancillary services e.g. assaying, warehousing and logistics, Data Centers Service, software services etc., for the market functionaries as per the provisions of Section 37 of the Act for discovering the price of notified agricultural commodities. Such an entity is hereby termed as market functionary as per section 31 of the Act, to provide services for discovering the price of notified agricultural commodities as per the rules and bye-laws made thereunder;

(j)       "e-platform Licence" means the Licence issued under section 32-A of the Act, by the notified authority to a market functionary engaged in conducting of e-trading including e-auction and its ancillary services for price discovery of notified agricultural commodities;

(k)      "Form" means form appended to these rules;

(l)       "Joint Director" means Joint Director of the Madhya Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board appointed under the Act;

(m)    "Market Committee" means the market committee constituted under Section 11 which has been vested with full power to control the marketing of agricultural produce in the declared specified market area or within the state for online trading Licence holder market functionary under Section 32-A;

(n)     "Misconduct" means willfully not to receive or refuse to receive information sent by State Government, Managing Director, Collector or authorized officer, Deputy Director, Market Committee or disobey the order/direction issued by Board, Managing Director or the authorized officer, market committee or non-submission of required information in the time limit or submission of incomplete or incorrect information;

(o)      "Online Market" means a market where the trade of notified agricultural produce takes place on an electronic platform (e-platform) provided by either the market committee and or Board's E-Platform Licensee;

(p)      "Online trading" means trade in notified agricultural produce between seller and Licensee buyer, through e-platform, subject to the following;

(1)      All such trade shall be based on pre-defined and displayed specifications, specifying the quality parameters, including discount and premium for variation in such parameters, terms and conditions of weighment, warehousing, delivery and payments of charges and levies etc.

(2)      All such trade at the end of the day shall result into compulsory weighment, physical delivery to the buyer and or his representative and payment of the produce.

(3)      No carry forward of positions shall be permitted.

(q)      "Online trading Licence" means the Licence issued by the notified authority or officer under sub-section (2) of Section 32-A for the business of notified agricultural commodities;

(r)      "Secretary" means the Secretary of the Market Committee;

(s)      " Section" means a section of the Act;

(t)       " Sampling" means an act of drawing a representative sample from the lot of notified agricultural commodities;

(u)     "Transaction charges" means charges collected from the Online trading buyer on the value of notified agricultural commodity sold through the electronic platform at such rates as may be fixed by the Board from time to time subject to a minimum rate of five paise and a maximum of twenty paise for every one hundred rupees price;

(v)      "Yard" means all the notified area and market yards of market committees in the state.

(2)     Words and expressions used but not defined in these rules shall have the same meaning as assigned to them in the Act

CHAPTER-II

Rule - 3. Authority.

(1)     The Managing Director, Madhya Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board is hereby appointed to be the Authority for the purpose of granting, renewing or refusing to grant online trading Licence, e-platform Licence and is authorised to delegate his authority to the subordinate officers.

(2)     Any person desiring to operate as trader of notified agricultural produce in the Yard in the state using electronic platform under Section 32-A of the Act, and or provide service for price discovery, material accounting, trade fulfillment and online funds settlement through e-platform shall have to obtain Licence from the authority/officer.

CHAPTER-III ISSUE OF ONLINE TRADING LICENCE

Rule - 4. Grant of traders Licence to operate in the Yard in the State.

(1)     Any person desiring to obtain Online trading Licence as per sub-rule (2) of rule 3 shall have to apply to the Managing Director or the officer authorized by him for grant of Licence in Form A with the information mentioned in the said form along with a fee of Rs. 500/- (Rupees five hundred only) per annum. If the applicant is having valid trading Licence of any APMC in the State, then the fee to be deposited with the application would be Rs. 100/- (Rupees one hundred only) per annum and the application has to be submitted in Form A-1.

(2)     The applicant shall submit, along with application security of, value of their maximum purchase intended in one day, in the form of Bank Guarantee drawn from a nationalized bank and presentable for honoring at the said Bank's branch in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.

(3)     The Managing Director or the officer authorized by him on receipt of such application, complete in all respects, together with the required information, documents and fee may grant a Licence in Form-B to the applicant within seven working days from the receipt of application for carrying out trade in the Yard in the State using electronic platform. Online Trading Licence shall be mandatory to participate in e-auction through e-platform.

(4)     The Licence fee so received shall be remitted to the State Marketing Development Fund.

(5)     The Licencee shall have to pay market fee and other cess, fee on the purchase of notified agricultural produce made in the respective market areas to the concerned market committees as per the provisions of the Act, bye-laws and the directives of the State Government

(6)     A Licence granted under these rules unless renewed or cancelled/terminated shall remain in force till the validity of the Licence period, not exceeding ten years.

(7)     Every application for renewal of Licence shall be made before one month of the expiry of its period. For renewal of Licence, all the necessary procedures specified in sub rule (1), (2) and (3) of rule 4 shall be carried out by the notified authority or the officer authorized by him.

(8)     If the application for renewal in Form-A is made in accordance with sub-rule (7), the applicant shall be deemed to be duly Licenced until orders are passed on the application.

(9)     The Managing Director or the officer authorized by him may after giving the applicant an opportunity of being heard for reasons to be recorded in writing, refuse to grant a Licence to any person who is either not solvent or otherwise disqualified under the Act or the rules or by-laws or whose operations in the market area and or State are not likely to further the efficient working of the market.

(10)   On grant of Licence, the applicant shall execute an undertaking in Form submitted with application, agreeing to conform to the Act, Rules, bye-laws and the directions issued from time to time.

(11)   Suspension or Cancellation of Online trading Licence.-

(a)      The online trading Licence may be suspended or cancelled by the notified authority or officer, if the Licence holder:-

(i)       has obtained Licence through willful misrepresentation or fraud or any person acting on his behalf, commits a breach or contrivance any of the terms or condition of the Licence; or

(ii)      in collusion with other Licence holders committing any act by which the marketing of any produce has been abstained, suspended or stopped; or

(iii)     has become insolvent; or

(iv)    has been proved guilty for misconduct under the Act, rules and bye-laws; or

(v)      behaves against the interest of any market committee, farmers, Board; or

(vi)    has been proved guilty by the Court, Managing Director or the market committee under the rules and by-laws; or

(vii)   has not made payment of due market fees, Nirashrit Shulk within the maximum period of 30 days together with the interest; or

(viii)  has not made payment to the farmers/sellers of the market area of the agricultural produce, purchased from them within the prescribed period; or

(ix)    has made default in payment by not depositing due amount with the Board or market committee within the period mentioned in the notice/demand note; or

(x)      has not submitted prescribed periodical returns in the Board or office of the market committee, as the case may be within the prescribed time limit; or

(xi)    has acted against the interests of the Board or the market committee; or "

(xii)   has engaged unauthorized persons for weighment or hammali of notified agricultural produce; or

(xiii)  has been found involved in weighing the seller's agricultural produce less than me actual weight and causing loss to him:

Provided that before suspending or cancelling any Licence reasonable opportunity of minimum fifteen days of being heard shall be given to the Licence holder by the notified authority or the officer authorized by him. If within the prescribed time limit the reply of the show-cause notice is not given by the Licence holder it shall be deemed that the Licence holder has agreed with the charges shown in show-cause notice and the notified authority or the officer authorized by him shall have the power to take the ex-parte decision.

The information relating to the order to refuse to grant/renew the Licence or information relating to suspension or cancellation of Licence shall be given to the concerned person/firm/company/society, by the notified authority or the officer authorized by him in the following manner:-

(a)      by registered post to his registered office; or

(b)      by delivery to his authorized representative.

Rule - 5. Grant of electronic-platform (e-platform) Licence to operate in the Yard in the State.

(1)     Any person desiring to obtain e-platform Licence as per sub-rule (2) of rule 3 shall have to apply to the Managing Director for grant of Licence in Form-C with the information mentioned in the said form along with a fee of Rs. 5,000/- (Rupees five thousand only) per annum.

(2)     Eligibility criteria for the Licencee shall be as under,-

(a)      The applicant shall be a Company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 (No. 1 of 1956) for the last three years, and inter-alia should be in the business of providing electronic auctioning services for notified agricultural produce to State Agricultural Marketing Board's/APMCs/PSU and for the said service alone should have atleast total turnover of Rs. Five crore during the immediate two financial years. (Self attested copies of audited balance sheet and profit and loss account of immediate past two years to be submitted with the application);

(b)      The applicant should be recognized for providing e-auctioning platform for notified agricultural produce and should have successfully completed atleast 2500 e-auctions during immediate two financial years with total (auction) value greater than Rs. 500/- crore (Rs. five hundred crore) from all such e-auctions. (self attested copies of relevant documents to be submitted with the application).

(c)      The applicant should be single entity. Consortiums are not "eligible to apply. The applicant should not have been blacklisted or debarred by Central Government/State Government/other Government Bodies or under a declaration of ineligibility for corrupt or fraudulent practices. (self attested certificate to the effect is to be submitted with the application).

(d)      The applicant should be certified for ISO 27001 and should have it's own Domain, e-auction related software and own data center/should have arrangements for Tier-3 data center (approved by the Government of India). The e-auctioning related software should be designed, developed and owned by the applicant itself and should be compliant of e-Auction's portal, IT Act, guidelines issued by Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), Deity (Department of Electronics and Information Technology), Madhya Pradesh Krishi Upaj mandi Adhiniyam, 1972 (No. 24 of 1973) and other regulatory bodies for forwarding e-auctioning process. (Self attested copies of relevant documents to be submitted with the application).

(e)      The applicant shall not have any equity and or any partnership with the Online Trading Licencee and directly and or indirectly shall not purchase the notified agricultural produce.

(3)     The applicant shall submit, along with application performance security of value Rs. 50,00,000/- (Rs. fifty lacs) in the form of Bank Guarantee drawn from a nationalized bank and presentable for honoring at the said Bank's branch at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. This performance security would be revised after one year of operation to a minimum of Five percent of the total online trade accomplished through the e-platform of the Licencee and or minimum of Rs. 75,00,000/- (Rs. seventy five lacs), whichever is more.

(4)     The Managing Director on receipt of such application, complete in all respects, together with the required information, documents and fee may grant a Licence in Form-C-1 to the applicant within twenty working days from the receipt of application for establishing the infrastructure in the Yard in the State.

(5)     The Licence fee so received and in case of forfeiting of performance security, the amount shall be remitted to the State Marketing Development Fund.

(6)     The Licencee shall have to establish his own infrastructure for e-auction in the Yard in the state and deploy manpower for online trading and to provide the allied services i.e. assaying, warehousing and logistics etc. Mandi Committee shall provide Licencee suitable office space on the rent decided by the District Collector. Electricity charges on actual use basis shall be paid by the Licencee to the mandi committee. Licencee shall be responsible for safety of their hardware, furniture, fixtures, equipments, manpower etc.

(7)     Only, Online Trading Licencee under these Rules, would be entitled to participate for trading through e-platform and this shall be strictly complied by the e-platform Licencee. Further, only after successful completion of trade i.e. physical delivery of commodities and payment of all fee/levies/charges etc. as well as the amount to the seller etc., the Online Trading Licencee shall be eligible to enter into "Commercial transaction" with any other Online Trading Licencee for the commodities which has been purchased by them through e-auction in the Yard in the State using e-platform.

(8)     Licencee shall provide assaying service to the seller and or warehousing and logistics service to the buyer having Online Trading Licence, for which the service charges being charged has to agreed upon between the Licencee and the seller/buyer in advance (i.e. before the commencement of e-auction) and displayed on the e-auction portal as well as on the sale agreement (anubandh patrak) entered between the seller/buyer and the Licencee. The said service charges shall be received by the Licencee from the seller/Buyer for the related services (assaying and or warehousing and logistics etc.) provided for the spot trading on e-platform.

(9)     Licencee shall ensure and shall be solely liable for, that all accrued/due market fee and other cess, levies, charges on the purchase of notified agricultural commodities, is made to the concerned market committee as per the provisions of the Act, bye-laws and the directives of the State Government

(10)   A Licence granted under this rule unless renewed or cancelled/terminated shall remain in force till the validity of the Licence period, not exceeding ten years.

(11)   Every application for renewal of Licence shall be made one month before the expiry of its period. For renewal of Licence, all the necessary procedures specified for granting the new Licence, shall be carried out by the authority.

(12)   If the application for renewal in Form-C is made in accordance with sub-rule (10) of rule 5, the applicant shall be deemed to be duly Licenced until orders are passed on the application.

(13)   The Managing Director may after giving the applicant an opportunity of being heard for reasons to be recorded in writing refuse to grant a Licence to any person who is either not solvent or otherwise disqualified under the Act or the rules or by-laws or does not fulfill the criteria laid down or whose operations in the market area and or State are not likely to further the efficient working of the market.

(14)   On grant of Licence, the applicant shall execute an undertaking in Form submitted with application, agreeing to conform to the Act, rules, bye-laws and the directions issued from time to time.

(15)   Licencee shall be entitled to charge and receive "Transaction Charges" (which would be exclusive of service taxes and other statutory levies if. any and the same would be over and above the Transaction charges, however Income Tax payable by the Licencee shall not be part of statutory levies.) from the buyer having Online Trading Licence, which shall be payable only on trading resulted in payment of all due cess/fee, purchase amount to the seller and physical delivery of notified agricultural commodities to the buyer.

(16)   The Licencee shall be solely responsible for implementation services, which shall include customization of Electronic Platform, building additional capabilities in the Electronic Platform as intimated by the Board, training of market personnel, online trading Licencees, farmer and other participants, supporting the Board, Market committees in every manner to adopt the e-platform and all such activities for the market committee to deploy the e-platform in its operations.

(17)   Licencee shall also be responsible for.-

(a)      Diligently carry out system administration, system upgrades management, application deployment and upgrades;

(b)      Maintain and manage the Operating System, Data Base Management System, Network and Security administration system;

(c)      Regularly back up and preserve data in a manner that it deems it appropriate;

(d)      Properly handle the application failure within the primary data centre and the disaster recovery site;

(e)      Maintain multiple security zones in the data centre;

(f)       Maintain documentation of physical and network security devices, processes and policies;

(g)      Maintain infrastructure management tools and reports;

(h)     Maintain incident and fault reports tracking;

(i)       Maintain an asset register with end of support and end of life particulars and track the same;

(j)       Monitor data lines between the Markets and the data centre;

(k)      Monitor Internet connectivity, including liaising with network service provider for line faults, provisioning of new lines, and related matters; and

The following Recovery Point Objectives shall be applicable.-

(a)      In case of failure in the primary data centre-There shall be no loss of completed transactions; and

(b)      In case of failure of the disaster recovery facility-There shall be no loss of trade and settlement data.

(18)   The number of modifications or enhancements to the e-platform that can be asked for by Board shall not be subject to any limitation. Further, in the event that a similar electronic platform is adopted by any other state or made available by the Government of India to the State and or States, then the Board may after obtaining the statutory consent from such State and or Government of India as the case may be, direct the Licencee to provide access to such other electronic platform through Licencee's e-platform so as to enable-

(a)      The online trader and farmer in the State of Madhya Pradesh to offer his ' notified commodities for sale through such other electronic platform in addition to the Licencee's e-platform and

(b)      The online trading Licencee buyer in such other electronic platform to bid for the notified commodities offered for sale in the Licencee's e-platform,

(19)   Licencee shall ensure that the following prescribed performance levels for the e-platform is maintained.

(a)      Peak Capacity per Market-20000 lots per day.

(b)      Average capacity per Market-800 lots per day.

(c)      Concurrent users-5000.

(d)      Response time on LAN-less than 2 seconds.

(e)      Batch processes-Not more than 10 minutes for all batch processes.

(f)       Recovery Point Objective for failure in the primary data centre-no loss of completed transactions.

(g)      Recovery Point Objective for failure of the disaster recovery facility-no loss of trade and settlement data. Order and lots data may be lost for yard lots.

(h)     Recovery Time Objective for failure in the primary data centre-Ten minutes.

(i)       Recovery Time Objective for failure of the disaster recovery facility-before the commencement of Business Hours of the next Business Day.

Note:-The performance levels as detailed above are only indicative. Based on experience, Licencee shall be in readiness to handle peak capacity and users that may be more than the above.

(20)   Licencee shall establish a state level office at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and site office in the market yard along with the necessary infrastructure within a maximum period of thirty days from the Licence being granted. Further, Licencee, in writing shall intimate i.e. address, phone number, fax number, e-mail etc. about their State office, to the Managing Director, and regarding the site office to the Joint Director, Madhya Pradesh State Agricultural Marketing Board, (concerning) Regional Office and the Secretary, Market Committee.

(21)   Suspension or Cancellation of e-platform Licence.-

(a)      The e-platform Licence may be suspended or cancelled by the notified authority, if the Licencee holder-

(i)       has obtained Licence through willful misrepresentation or fraud or any person acting on his behalf, commits a breach or contrivance any of the terms or condition of the Licence; or

(ii)      in collusion with other Licence holders committing any act by which the marketing of any produce has been abstained, suspended or stopped; or

(iii)     has become insolvent; or

(iv)    has been proved guilty for misconduct under the Act, rules and bye-laws; or

(v)      behaves against the interest of any market committee, farmers, Board; or

(vi)    has been proved guilty by the Court, Managing Director or the market committee under the rules and bye-laws; or

(vii)   has not ensured the payment of due market fees, Nirashrit Shulk within the maximum period of 30 days together with the interest; or

(viii)  has not ensured the payment to the farmers/sellers of the market area of the agricultural produce, purchased from them within the prescribed period; or

(ix)    has made default in payment by not depositing due amount with the Board or market committee within the period mentioned in the notice/demand note; or

(x)      has not submitted prescribed periodical returns in the Board or office of the market committee, as the case may be within the prescribed time limit; or

(xi)    has acted against the interests of the Board or the market committee; or"

(xii)   has engaged unauthorized persons for weighment or hammali of notified agricultural produce; or

(xiii)  has been found involved in weighing the seller's agricultural produce less than the actual weight and causing loss to him; or

(xiv)  has been declared defaulter or debarred by the Central Government/State Government/Government PSUs and or has ceased to conform the laid down eligibility criteria:

Provided that before suspending or cancelling any Licence reasonable opportunity of minimum fifteen days of being heard shall be given to the Licence holder by the authority or officer. If within the prescribed time limit the reply of the show-cause notice is not given by the Licence holder it shall be deemed that the Licence holder has agreed with the charges shown in show-cause notice and the authority/officer shall have the power to take the ex-parte decision.

The information relating to the order to refuse to grant/renew the Licence or information relating to suspension or cancellation of Licence shall be given to the concerned person/firm/company/society, by the authority in the following manner-

(a)      by registered post to his registered office; or

(b)      by delivery to his authorized representative.

(22)   Issuing of e-platform Licence in no way whatsoever, prohibit the mandi committee to have and operate its own e-platform, State Government owned e-platform, Central Government and or Government owned PSUs e-platform, continue auction of notified agricultural produce as per the provisions of Act, as well as the notified authority to issue e-platform Licence to more than one person in the State.

(23)   In the event of termination and or cancellation of Licence and or term completion of Licence period, it would be obligatory on the Licencee to hand over all the reports, data and related information to the market committee and Board in hard copies as well as in soft copy.

Rule - 6. E-platform.

(1)     The Managing Director shall specify notified agricultural commodities and the mandi committee where the sale price of such notified agricultural commodities in such market areas shall be determined by an electronic platform as the Managing Director may direct in this behalf.

(2)     The Managing Director may specify one or more of the following in respect of notified agricultural commodities and markets specified under sub-rule (1), namely,-

(i)       quality testing of notified agricultural commodities, grading, quality certification and standardization of notified agricultural commodities;

(ii)      weighing the commodities before and after the sale;

(iii)     storing the notified agricultural commodities in warehouses in the market area and sale of such stored commodities;

(iv)    payment of price of the notified agricultural commodities by the Online traders;

(v)      procurement and disposal of notified agricultural commodities through electronic platform;

(vi)    compensation to the seller in case of default by the online trader;

(vii)   market intelligence;

(viii)  any other matter, which in the opinion of the managing Director is necessary for giving effect to sale of notified agricultural commodities through electronic platform.

A service level agreement shall be entered into with the e-platform Licencee by, the Managing Director specifying the terms and conditions of providing the electronic platform and other services for the market notified under Rule-6, which shall be binding on the e-platform Licencee.

Rule - 7. Settlement of disputes relating to online trading and markets.

Notwithstanding anything contained in these rules, the bye-laws of the market committee shall prevail for settlement of disputes in respect of transactions in notified agricultural commodities.

Rule - 8. Disposal of Performance Security.

(1)     The amount due to the sellers for their produce and other amount due to the market committee if not paid by the e-platform Licence holder, shall be recovered together with the interest by the authority or the officers authorized by him from the Bank Guarantee furnished as security. The remaining amount of security deposit in the form of Bank Guarantee shall be released if demanded by the Licence holder, after obtaining no demand/no dues certificate from the secretary market committees.

(2)     If the Licence holder desires to surrender the Licence, then the authority after proper enquiry, may take decision to refund or not to refund or to refund partly, the performance security amount deposited. The decision of the authority shall be final and be binding upon the Licencee.

CHAPTER-IV APPEAL

Rule - 9.

Any person aggrieved by order of refusal to grant Online trading Licence/e-platform Licence or its suspension/cancellation, may prefer an appeal to the State Government within 30 days from the date of receipt of order and the order passed by the State Government, after giving reasonable opportunity of being heard, shall be final.

CHAPTER-V OTHER CONDITIONS

Rule - 10. Submission of returns by the holder of online trading and e-platform Licence.

All returns as per the provisions of the bye-laws will have to be submitted by the Licence holder to the market committee/notified authority and or the officers authorised by him who may also ask for additional information/reports pertaining to auctions carried out using the e-platform and the same has to be provided by the Licencee.