New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman kicked off preparations for presentation of the Union Budget on July 5, with the first meeting with the stakeholders from agriculture and rural development sectors.
There shall be more such meetings with different books before she sits down to prepare her first-ever budget. Sitting with her in the consultations were MoS for finance Anurag Thakur, NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chandra and a host of officials.
Giving details of the meeting, a govt press note said the suggestions coming from representatives of agricultural and rural development sectors included more investment in agriculture, better market access to farmers, enhancing the food processing sector and popularising organic manure.
Suggestions were also made to treat the solar energy as the third crop to augment income of farmers. GST issues related to farmers'' producers organisations, filling up of vacancies in the agricultural universities and more investment in micro irrigation and solar pumps, besides financial incentives to the states for agro-market reforms.
Those who participated in giving inputs for the budget included NABARD chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Confederation of Indian Industry director general Chandrajit Banerjee, Punjab Agricultural University VC Dr Baldev Singh Dhillon, and Bharat Krishak Samaj chairman Ajay Vir Jakhar.
