Budget a boon to farm, food processing sector, says AFCCI
The chamber also welcomed the proposal to set up e-commerce export hubs on PPP mode for the MSMEs in traditional products.
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MADURAI: Welcoming the Union Budget 2024-25, Agro Food Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AFCCI), Madurai, hailed the announcement to promote farm sector by giving thrust on productivity and resilience in agriculture through transforming agriculture research.
Explaining some of the highlights of the budget, S Rethinavelu, president, AFCCI, on Wednesday said the release of 109 high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties, initiating one crore farmers across the country into natural farming, establishing 10,000 bio-input research centres, missions for pulses and oil seeds to achieve self-sufficiency, promotion of vegetable production and supply chains and facilitating digital public infrastructure for agriculture would be a boon to farm sector and food processing as well. In its pre-budget memorandum, the AFCCI urged to hike the Centre’s capex allocation for 2024-25 in the budget and thereby focus on job creation and simultaneously drive India’s GDP growth. The chamber applauded the announcement in this line providing more than 11 lakh crore for capital expenditure, which would be 3.4 per cent of GDP.The budget also serves to add impetus to the MSMEs and in particular, labour-intensive manufacturing units by formulating a package covering financing, regulatory changes and technology support as it would give assured employment to youth.
The chamber also welcomed the proposal to set up e-commerce export hubs on PPP mode for the MSMEs in traditional products.
On the other hand, Rethinavelu said GST with hundreds and hundreds of notifications and circulars by central and state governments are difficult to understand resulting in high cost of compliance. Under the backdrop of the warning given by the Chairman of CBIC to the officers against “reckless” issue of GST notices without diligence, many stakeholders expected an announcement that the second-generation reforms called GST 2.0 would be implemented. But, the lack of such an announcement is a great disappointment.
