Bengaluru/UNI: The Congress government in Karnataka has announced that it would repeal the amendments to the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMC) Act implemented by the previous BJP government.

"We had said that we will change the APMC Act, the Cabinet has approved the new bill. It will be introduced in the upcoming Assembly session," Agricultural Marketing Minister Shivanand Patil told reporters after the cabinet meeting here on Thursday.

The existing APMC Act brought in by the BJP government under ex-CM BS Yediyurappa eliminated the role of middlemen in the purchase of farmers' produce from them.

The amendments were brought in by introducing an ordinance amending the APMC Act in 2020. In September same year, the Karnataka assembly passed the amended APMC Act and then was passed in the Legislative Council in December.

The amendments enabled a radical recasting of the APMC system by removing all restrictions on the sale of agricultural produce, thereby allowing private individuals to set up trade markets where farmers could sell.

The amendments curtailed the powers of local APMC and allowed private individuals to start agricultural trading - buying and selling - if they held a permanent account number (PAN). Before that, farmers were forced to sell only in notified markets or mandis.

The amendment also aimed to end the harassment of farmers and traders by traffic police and vigilance department officials. Before the amendments, farmers had to pay a hefty fine if they sold outside the 'notified' Mandis.

Agriculture marketing in most states was regulated by the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) established by state governments under their respective agricultural produce marketing laws.

Even though the Union government repealed all three farms in December 2021 after widespread protests from farmers in Punjab, the BJP government in Karnataka refused to roll back the amendments.

During the media briefing, Shivanand Patil claimed that the amendments introduced by BJP led to state-owned APMCs incurring huge losses.

"Cumulatively, the APMC markets used to earn a revenue of around Rs 680 crore, which has nosedived to around Rs 200 crore. We need to arrest this fall and need to increase revenue of the markets, so bringing in new law is necessary," he added.