PTI
New Delhi
Allaying fears of any poor monsoon-driven troubles for the farmers and the consumers, Jaitley said the government has taken a number of initiatives. He referred to the recently announced Rs 50,000 crore programme for a national irrigation.
“And I can tell you that this is only the beginning, I am fully confident that with the economy likely to move up in the next few years, resources will be available.
“We are fairly clear about the fact that a large part of investment will have to go into agriculture, mitigating this rural distress and indebtedness of the farmer,” he said.
Promising more sustainable measures for the farm sector so that the farmers are not left to the mercy of rain gods, Jaitley said “hopefully, in the near future, a viable and vibrant insurance scheme will be in place for farmers.
Jaitley said India needs higher growth as well as redistribution of resources.
“We need higher growth on one hand and we need to flag the concerns of the economy in those sections where the benefits of that growth process must reach first.” He said Ashok Gulati, who is the Infosys chair professor for agriculture at the economic think-tank Icrier, has made a very valuable presentation to him offering “a doable and effective insurance programme, wherein the farmer is at least able to recover the basic inputs that he puts in in the events of uncertainties created by more than one reasons.” In spite of a not-so-rosy picture on the manufacturing front, the government data yesterday showed that indirect tax collections grew in the June quarter to around Rs 1.54 lakh crore, powered by a robust show in excise collections, from Rs 1.12 lakh crore in the year-ago period.
However, core sector data and IIP figures have painted a disappointing picture.
While factory output was better than expected in April at 5.1 per cent against 2.8 per cent y-o-y, in May this nearly halved to 2.7 per cent from 4.1 per cent a year ago.
Retail inflation also edged up to 5.01 per cent in May.
On the Greek crisis Jaitley said, “We have the lesson from Greece to learn today. And the big message is that the countries must learn to spend within their means.
“If they did not do that then they will have unusual crisis confronting you. And therefore we are well tracked on a roadmap where our own fiscal deficit (3.9 per cent), CAD (1.02 per cent of GDP in 2014-15) are broadly coming under control and inflation is under control.”
