Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Jan 11, 2006 |
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Industry & Economy
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Budget Agri-Biz & Commodities - Infrastructure Agriculturists seek stepping up of farm sector investments Our Bureau
The Union Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, with the Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Mr Ashok Jha, at a pre-budget meeting with agriculturists in the Capital on Tuesday. - Kamal Narang
New Delhi , Jan. 10 AGRICULTURISTS urged the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, on Tuesday, to step up investments in the agricultural sector, provide fiscal incentives for creation of irrigation facilities and come up with measures to ensure that government subsidies reach the farmers. At their pre-Budget interaction with the Finance Minister here, they also said that some fiscal support or incentives are needed to enable farmers to create personal irrigation facilities. The Finance Minister is understood to have told them that the forthcoming budget would give "very high importance" to agriculture, with adequate stress on food processing, irrigation and better infrastructure for registering higher growth in the sector. The Federation of Oilseeds Cooperative Growers of India Chairman, Mr Venkata Rao Nadagouda, asked the government to protect the interests of the domestic oilseed farmers. Besides stressing the need for close monitoring of edible oil import, he also called for a reasonably high level of customs duty on the commodity to provide a level-playing field. Mr Kanodia Omparkash, representing an NGO, made a case for concessional loans to farmers. He said that subsidies targeted for peasants never reached them and therefore stressed the need for direct subsidies in the form of concessional credit. On the foodgrain output prospects, the Finance Minister indicated that the growth during the just ended kharif season would be only about 1.1 per cent, as a result of adverse climatic factors. The Government is targeting a 3 per cent agriculture growth on hopes of impressive performance during the Rabi season as a result of late monsoon.
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