New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government’s first Budget is all set to lay a roadmap to cut down excessive expenditure on urea subsidy and imports of edible oil and pulses, which together account for over Rs 1,60,000 crores each year. Also, the Budget will unveil the
Agricultural Price Stabilisation Fund in a more robust manner to insulate farmers from adverse impact to their incomes and also to curb inflationary pressure.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi clearly stating that he seeks a major turnaround in agriculture, the Budget, to be presented by finance minister Arun Jaitley on July 10, will seek to make a substantial allocation of funds for the farm sector.
“The government spends Rs 80,000 crores each year on subsidy for urea. There is an assessment this can be cut down by a minimum of 50 per cent, as farmers overuse them. The Budget will make significantly higher allocations to ensure that soil health cards are issued to farmers in a time-bound manner,” a source said.
Barring Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra and upto some extent Gujarat, other states have not done enough work in this regard.
Furthetmore, India spends Rs 60,000 crore and Rs 12,000 crore each year on import of edible oils and pulses respectively.
