Comments : Pre-Budget Expectations

The budget session is about to start in the month to come and the anticipation has started to arise amongst the population about the allocation of funds in different sectors. Few promises and comments from the minister has shown interest and possibility of a higher allocation for funds for the agricultural and allied sector.

With this, Sandeep Sabharwal, CEO, SLCM Group has shared his budget expectation. 

Sandeep Sabharwal says “India has improved its ranking in global index for ease of doing business as government continues to work on providing enabling environment. However, one area where government can do more in Budget-2018 is the agriculture and the allied sectors. Government can take a cue from last Economic Survey that has put an ambitious target of 4% growth rate for the sector that accounts for 40-45% of India’s workforce. However, for achieving this, government needs to lend helping hand to the agriculture financing arms and warehousing service providers, by rationalizing the tax burden on them. It will not only help achieve growth targets and food security but it may also attract investment and newer technology in the sector.”

SLCM is an ISO certified global post-harvest agri-warehousing group providing one-stop integrated solutions with a diversified portfolio of services ranging from Warehouse Management, Agriculture Financing and Collateral Management to Procurement. The group currently manages 2100 warehouses and 19 cold storages across India using a proprietary scientific storage management system ‘AGRI REACH’. The efficacy of ‘AGRI REACH’ has been attested in a study conducted by industry body FICCI which found that storage losses can be reduced to a minimal 0.5 percent using AGRI REACH.