Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman has begun her Pre-Budget Consultation meetings with stakeholders from various sectors and co-operative figures in her list of invitees for today that is Tuesday. She met representatives from Financial Sector and Capital Markets on Monday.
On Monday evening while preparing for his presentations for the next day, NCUI’s Chief Executive N Satyanarayan said to Indian Cooperative strengthening PACS is on the top of agenda; PACS are a must for the comprehensive development of rural areas, he said. “Viable PACS need to be converted into nodal agencies for both input and output needs of the farming community”, he added.
Marketing of agri produce, organic farming and latest know-how of modern farming are some of the issues NCUI is going to place before the Minister, said the CE highlighting points from his prepared notes.
Out of the total of 98 thousand PACS, one third of them could easily be converted into nodal agencies which could spearhead rural reconstruction programs, said Satyanarayan. The Govt schemes including that of NCDC should be implemented through these agencies, he felt.
The CE also promised to raise the long-pending demands of the sector such as exemption of income tax on co-ops, lack of parity in matter of corporate tax, harassment by Income Tax dept at times, etc.
“Last but not the least, NCUI would put emphasis on cooperative education and training. It is very important for the growth and functioning of the co-operative movement”, said Satyanarayan advocating increased financial support for the cooperative sector.
In the Monday meeting, along with the Finance Minister, the meeting was attended by Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Finance Secretary, Rajeev Kumar, Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, Economic Affairs, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, Revenue Secretary, among others.
It is expected that there would be experts from the field of agriculture as well as NITI Aayog representatives in the Tuesday meeting. Sahakar Bharati has been invited separately for formal pre-budget consultations on 19th December, said a Sahakar Bharati official.