DW BUREAU / CHANDIGARH

Union Minister of state for Railways and Food processing today hailed the Union budget presented by Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and said that budget would prove boon for agriculture and small and medium Industry in India. In a statement Ravneet Bittu said that the FM had announced many schemes to support MSME sector which included to set up 24 MSME clusters in the country. He added that this issue was raised by him with the FM during pre-budget meeting. He said that facility of term loan for MSMEs has been introduced by the FM for purchase of new machinery and equipment without collateral or third-party guarantee. Likewise limit of Mudra loan has been increased from 10 lakh to 20 lakh.

He said that Punjab would get its due share in all the central schemes announced in the budget. He said that both industrial and agriculture sector in Punjab would get big push. Ravneet Bittu said that it was vision of the Prime Minister Narender Modi to focus the thrust of budget on education, skill enhancement and job creation. He said that model skill loan scheme would be revised to facilitate loans up to 7.5 lakhs with a guarantee from the central government. He said that 25000 youth would be benefitted every year.

He lauded the budget provisions for agriculture sector and said that 1.52 lakh crore has been earmarked for agriculture and allied sectors. He said that large scale clusters of vegetable production is one of the core area. He said that center had recently announced higher MSP for major crops, and he hoped new schemes in budget would benefit farmers in a big way. Thanking the Prime Minister for giving path breaking initiatives in the Ministry of food processing Industries, Ravneet Bittu said that setting up of 50 Multi product food irradiation units in MSME, setting of 100 food quality and safety testing labs with NABL, 100 street food hubs in five cities, reduction in customs duty on marine products, internship to 1 Crore youth in 500 top companies, 40 lac youth to be skilled, 12 plug and play industrial parks, E commerce export hubs would be revolutionary steps.
(editor@dailyworld.in)