Finance Commission Sets up Expert Group under ITC Chairman to Encourage Farm Exports

Finance Commission (FC) has set up a group under the Chairman of ITC, Sanjiv Puri with an aim to suggest performance incentives for stages to encourage the farm exports and promote crops that would enable high import substitution. 

This is going to be an expert group that will work closely to recommend appropriate incentives for states for the five years through 2025-26 to boost reforms in the agriculture sector, as per reports. The group will consist of eight eminent members in the field of agriculture. A few names in the group are Radha Singh, Former Agriculture Secretary, Suresh Narayanan, CMD of Nestle India, Jay Shroff, CEO of UPL among others.  The group must submit a report to the Commission in three months.  

There has been a constant decline in farm exports in recent years. One of the prime reasons is the absence of desired structural reforms, mainly by states and the Centre's frequent restrictions and control on exports of a few items, for instance, onions. The objective behind the formation of the group is to identify the impediments for private sector investments along the agricultural value chain. The group also has to suggest policy measures and reforms that would help attract the required investments.

The terms of reference of the group include evaluating the opportunities for export and import substitution for Indian agricultural products and suggest ways to sustainably push exports and reduce the dependency on imports.