Thomas Isaac hints at action against chicken traders

Thiruvananthapuram: With chicken traders across the state refusing to bring down live chicken prices to Rs 87 a kilogram, a visibly irritated finance minister Dr T. M. Thomas Isaac said that the state government had initiated steps to wean small scale poultry farmers from their dependence on companies that sell feed and chicken at prohibitive costs.

“It is only by intervening in the production side can we break the stranglehold of the other-state chicken lobby and their middlemen in the state,” Isaac said here on Wednesday. Since the government cannot legally enforce lower chicken prices, the minister hinted at action on the basis of tax misdemeanours. “The Commercial Sales Tax Department is collecting data and action will be taken after vetting the figures,” Dr Isaac said.

However, chicken farmers in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam district, against whom the minister has directed his ire, say that Isaac had got his maths wrong.