India’s Ist Fortnightly Newspaper For Beverages, Food & Allied Industries
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Vol. 5, Issue 11, April (I) 2013, Rs. 20/-
Food processing industries utilises Food processing less than half fund in 11th Plan
T
he government expressed concern that the food processing industries utilised only Rs 1,600 crore out of Rs 4,000 crore allocated during the 11th Five Year Plan period under various central schemes. Addressing a conference, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Tariq Anwar said the government is giving great emphasis on this sector but the industry has
failed to utilise the incentives. He sought to know from the industry the reason behind the lukewarm response to the various schemes including setting up of mega food parks and cold storage. “I would like to point out that against a total allocation of Rs 4,000 crore for the food processing sector in the 11th Plan, the industry could avail only around Rs 1,600 crore under the various schemes. “I would like to know from you (from the industry) as to why the industry could not uses these resources and if there is something that needs to be done at our end, we would be willing to do it,” Anwar said at a conference organised by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.
The minister emphasised that the country has one of the most favourable fiscal incentive structures for promoting the food processing sector. He highlighted several tax incentives being offered by the government. Anwar noted that the food processing sector out-performed manufacturing in 2011-12 fiscal. “While food processing industry grew at 15.1 per cent, manufacturing growth was close to 3 per cent.” The minister said although the country is one of the largest producers in foodgrains, fruits and vegetables, but the processing level is less than 10 per cent. The growth in this sector would have a much larger impact on the economy as it would contribute in tackling various concerns such as disguised unemployment in agriculture, rural poverty, food security, food inflation, food wastages and improved nutrition, Tariq said.
office opened in Mohali
P
unjab minister Adesh Pratap Singh Kairon inaugurated the office of the newly created State Directorate of Food Processing. The building is located in Mohali’s Phase 2. As, the department comes under the Ministry of Food & Civil Supplies, which is headed
by Kairon. The new directorate is intended to implement the state’s food and agroprocessing policy and to give suggestions to prospective entrepreneurs on the schemes launched by National Mission on Food Processing (NMFP). The directorate of food processing will act as a single window for prompt processing and clearance of proposals of mega-agri projects under the industrial policy. Addressing the gathering, Kairon stressed the need for adequate grain warehousing. He said that expanding storage capacity was one of the priorities of his ministry.