Govt wants to maintain high agro production at low cost
In his reaction to the proposed budget for the FY2022-2023, Jahangir Alam Khan, agriculture researcher and economist, said the government has allocated Tk16,000 crore in subsidy to restraint production cost of the growers and maintain the high production volume which has been hampered by price hike of fertiliser in the international market.
The decision to reduce price of imported raw materials of pesticides will also lessen the production cost of agriculture produces. The government is also continuing the 20% rebate on irrigation which too will help increase production, he added.
"These steps indicate that the government is alert regarding not becoming too import-dependent in a volatile world market," he said.
In the proposed budget, the agriculture sector's share rose by 32% (including the sub-sectors), the lion's share of which has been allocated to subsidies, he added.
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Jahangir Alam further said the government is trying to boost the forward linkage industry or processing sector of agriculture so that the farmers can get fair prices. That's why tax waiver has been given to the entrepreneurs of fruit processing, vegetable processing, milk products producers, baby food producers and agriculture equipment manufactures.
"It will give small entrepreneurs who stopped production during Covid-19 a chance to come back while new investors will come in. Although import duty has been increased on imported cheese, the scope has been kept to produce cheese locally at a low cost," Jahangir Alam said.
Earlier, the government provided credit for four or five agricultural products, which has now been raised to 24. But the problem lies with the banks as it is not confirmed whether the genuine farmers get this credit or not, he added.
Welcoming the government's initiatives to reduce the price of poultry and dairy feeds, raw materials of pesticides and import duty of capital machineries in the proposed budget, Jahangir Alam, however, expressed concern over reduction of the tax free income limit of the poultry and fisheries sector entrepreneurs which may damage the initiatives.
