COLDIRETTI PUGLIA, AGRICULTURAL DIESEL REMAINS A CHIMERA; PREFECT INTERVENTION REQUESTED FOR CRITICAL ISSUE IN ANDRIA – PugliaLive – Online information newspaper

Subsidized fuel in agriculture remains a chimera due to the unacceptable delays accumulated in many Municipalities, but in Andria there is high tension between farmers and the public administration due to the failure to issue UMA booklets, for which the intervention of the Prefect was requested. Coldiretti Puglia denounced the criticality of the situation and, in a letter to the Prefect of BAT Rossana Riflesso, stigmatizing what is happening in particular to the Municipality of Andria for the release of booklets for the purchase of agricultural diesel, asked for urgent intervention , considering the high tension that has arisen between farmers and public administration, in order to speed up the procedures and finally guarantee the supply of agricultural fuel with the regular carrying out of business activities.

Considering that the Municipality of Andria has had only one unit for the agricultural office since January 2024, with around 1500 procedures to be processed and that already in September 2023 Coldiretti Bari – BAT met the councilor for the Troia branch and the manager of SUAP Zingaro sector to once again point out the already proclaimed delay in issuing passbooks and propose external assignment or staff strengthening, at the end of January 24th – after the year has already begun – the Councilor convened the trade associations to discuss this problem and orient as desired for the external assignment, with subsequent completion of the relevant procedures and assignment of the service on March 25th.

“Despite the long process of institutional interlocution, given the initial reassurances for a rapid completion of the procedures – states Pietro Piccioni, director of Coldiretti Puglia – to date the procedures presented on 8 February have not been processed. All this inevitably translates into damage for agricultural companies, forced to purchase fuel with excise duties, to carry out ordinary and necessary cultivation operations, such as those for the prevention of Xylella”.

The criticality continues to perpetuate itself despite numerous requests both in the press and through direct interlocution, which were followed by the request from the Public Administration, responsibly accepted by Coldiretti Bari and Bat, to dilute the increasingly pressing discontent of the category, with the ‘promise’ that the now chronic disservice would be resolved, but at present the disservice has not been resolved.

Bureaucracy causes the loss of up to 100 days of work a year which are ‘stolen’ from farmers’ activities. Agricultural businesses – concludes Coldiretti Puglia – have expressed clear expectations for the future, with 62% strongly asking for administrative simplification.