Budget lays emphasis on Agriculture Food and Pharma sector: experts

Mumbai, Feb 28 (UNI) Experts connected with the Food and Pharma sector today applauded the Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram for giving due emphasis to agriculture, food and pharma sectors in the Union Budget for 2007-08.

''The Finance Minister focuses on a growth driving project and ensuring that we sustain as a fast developing knowledge economy. We are encouraged to note the core sectors we function in, such as food and agri-business, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology are well covered in this budget,'' Sanjiv Bhasin, CEO and Managing Director of Rabo India Finance Limited, a company engaged in financing the food and pharma sector here said.

With an overarching importance laid on agriculture and farm investment to increase by two percent of the GDP, we see ourselves lending expertise and knowledge to aid in the development of this sector. The reliefs and exemptions afforded on a number of excise duties will help drive the growth of the agricultural and food processing sector even more, he said ''We envisage that the new agriculture credit target set at Rs 2,25,000 crore will be easily met, if not exceeded,'' he added.

The increased focus on rural infrastructure, credit, insurance and agricultural growth, on the lines of the previous three Union Budgets, coupled with an increasing thrust on food processing is one of the key highlights of the Union Budget of 2007-08. Importantly, the Finance Minister has focused on core issues of agriculture such as seeds development, technology for farms, he said.

He evaluated the points of inflection and the targeted reach of various State schemes such as the fertilizer subsidy.

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