New Delhi [India]: Finance Ministry started the pre-budget consultation on Wednesday. The first consultation was held with the representatives of the agriculture and agro-processing industry. Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and Minister of State for New & Renewable Energy, Chemicals and Fertilizers, Bhagwanth Khuba jointly held the consultation through video conferencing. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was unable to attend the meeting due to her engagement in Parliament. Ramesh Chand, Member, Niti Aayog, Ajay Vir Jhakar, Chairman, Krushak Samaj, and other representatives from Agriculture and Agro-processing industry gave their valuable suggestions for the Union Budget 2022-23. Jakhar said the Government needs to design a robust pre-budget consultation process and system to have beneficiaries assess programmes to enable departments to tweak and reset their own programmes for more positive outcomes. He said the Green Revolution ensured India’s food security in its most difficult decades. “It’s now time for the central Government to fund a transition in green revolution states to ensure India’s nutrition security. Do note, states are in no condition to share the cost of the transition.” According to Jakhar, the government designs agri-policy, food policy, environment policy, health policy, etc. But now need Food Systems policy which considers the health of people and planet as one. “The Government lacks the capacity to design such policy. Need funds to build the capacity of Government and farmer organisations to lead change,” he said. Finance Secretary & Secretary Expenditure T.V. Somanathan; Secretary, DEA, Ajay Seth; Secretary, Revenue, Tarun Bajaj and Secretary MCA Rajesh Verma, besides other senior officials, were also present in the meeting.
