Shah, Tomar laud pro-farmer features in Budget
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Wednesday lauded the Union Budget presented in Parliament on Wednesday. Shah said the "all-inclusive and visionary" Budget 2023-24 will give further impetus to the Modi government's resolve for building a self-reliant India, taking every section along
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Wednesday lauded the Union Budget presented in Parliament on Wednesday.
Shah said the "all-inclusive and visionary" Budget 2023-24 will give further impetus to the Modi government's resolve for building a self-reliant India, taking every section along.
In a series of tweets in Hindi with the hashtag '#AmritKaalBudget', Shah said the target of increasing capital expenditure by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore for infrastructure development and keeping the fiscal deficit at 5.9 per cent is commendable.
This reflects the foresight of the Modi government to build a new India with strong infrastructure and a strong economy, he said. "The budget-2023 brought by the Modi government is a budget that lays a strong foundation of Amritkal.
"I am sure that this all-inclusive and visionary budget will give further impetus to the resolve of the Modi government for a self-reliant India, taking every section along. Congratulations to @narendramodi and (union finance minister) @nsitharaman for this," he said.
Shah thanked Prime Minister Modi for giving huge tax relief to the middle and salaried class as the budget proposed to increase tax rebate limit from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh. "The unprecedented changes in tax slabs will greatly benefit the middle class. Along with this, I also welcome the relief given to government employees," he said.
He said the allocation for agriculture loans has been increased to Rs 20 lakh crore. The Agriculture Accelerator Fund will be created to encourage agri-startups by young entrepreneurs. Along with this, for the next three years, one crore farmers will be helped to do natural farming and 10,000 Bio Input Resource Centers will be set up.
Shah said a budget provision of Rs 2.4 lakh crore has been made for railways, which will connect remote areas with railways. Along with this, the decision to revive 50 airports, heliports and advanced landing grounds in the country will increase regional air connectivity, which will give a boost to tourism.
With the plan to set up the world's largest decentralised storage capacity in the budget, he said, the farmers associated with cooperative societies will be able to store their produce and sell the produce at the right time and get a fair price. This will play an important role in Modi's resolve to increase the income of farmers, he said.
In another important decision for the cooperative sector, sugar cooperatives have been given the facility to reflect the payments made to farmers before 2016-17 in their expenses. The cooperative sugar mills will get Rs 10,000 crore relief from this proposal. "I welcome this," he said.
Meanwhile, Tomar said that small farmers across the country will benefit from the Budget 2023-24 in which emphasis has been laid on promoting modern farm technologies.
Tomar said the overall budgetary allocation for his ministry has been increased to an estimated Rs 1.25 lakh crore for the 2023-24 financial year, which includes Rs 60,000 crore for the government's ambitious scheme PM-KISAN.
"Small farmers will be benefited from the budget. Emphasis has been laid on promoting agriculture sector through technology," the minister said in a statement.
Many important provisions have been made in the Budget for agriculture and farmers' welfare, including hike in farm credit to Rs 20 lakh crore for the next fiscal, promotion of millets and startups, he added.
Small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land account for 86 per cent of the total cultivators in India.
