The Union Government’s focus on achieving 4 per cent growth a year in agriculture has gone down well with the farming community in the district, but they wonder how that would be possible without adequate investments in research and development.
While farm credit target set at Rs. 8 trillion for the 2014-15 fiscal, and setting up of long-term rural credit fund with an initial corpus of Rs. 5,000 crore would help in agricultural development, the absence of any concrete announcement on improving irrigation efficiency is disappointing, said K.V. Ponnaiyan, president of Tamil Nadu Swadeshi Farmers’ Association said.
“Existing technology for water management is outdated. As in the developed countries, India ought to spend 2 per cent of the agricultural GDP on research and development for improving irrigation efficiency.
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At present it is just 0.7 per cent. It must at least be increased to 1.5 per cent to begin with,” Mr. Ponnaiyan said, adding that the absence of seriousness in the budget for interlinking of rivers was disturbing.
Representatives of the textile sector in Erode has welcomed the Centre’s decision to sanction one of the six mega textile parks for Tamil Nadu. According to Ravichandran, secretary, Erode Cloth Merchant Association, the proposed textile park must be located in and around Erode so that it could draw strength from the Texvalley, the integrated wholesale textile trading centre, coming up at Gangapuram in the district.
The handloom reservation law must be amended as it does not reflect the ground reality of the textile sector. Powerlooms that are being modernised under TUF scheme must be given more leverage, Mr. Ravichandran said.
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A. Jayaseelan, general secretary of Salem City Chamber of Commerce expressed disappointment over non-implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST), and allowing FDI in online business.
“When we are strongly opposing FDI in multi-brand retailing, allowing FDI in online business will directly affect the traders,” he added. Welcoming the reduction in excise and import duties, he said that the move would benefit the consumers and traders directly. “Overall it is a balanced budget,” he said.
President of Salem District Small Scale and Tiny Industries Association K. Mariappan said that the budget focus on industrial growth with a thrust on infrastructure development. But reducing the allocation for MSME from Rs. 24,000 crore to Rs. 10,000 crore is disappointing.