(a) the number of schemes that are in vogue to help the Food Processing Industries in the country;
(b) the steps so far taken by the Government to upgrade the existing facilities; and
(c) the details of the innovations brought by the Government to save the Food Processing Industries during the current year?
THE MINISTER OF STATE OF THE MINISTRY OF FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES (SHRI N.T. SHANMUGAM)
(a) to (c): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
Statement referred to in reply to parts (a) to (c) of Lok
Sabha Starred Question No: 363 due for answer on 16th
December, 2002 regarding Promotion of FPIs.
(a) to (c): The Ministry of Food Processing Industries
implements six schemes to help food processing industries in
the country. These schemes, inter-alia, include Scheme for
Infrastructure Development, Scheme for Upgradation of
Technology, Modernisation and setting up of Units, Human
Resource Development, Quality Assurance, Research &
Development, Backward and Forward Linkages and Generic
Promotion.
The entire food processing sector has been exempted
from industrial licence except for alcoholic beverages and
items reserved for small scale sector. The food processing
sector has been included as a priority sector for bank
lending. The foreign direct investment can be made in this
sector upto 100% under automatic route except for
manufacture of alcoholic beverages and items reserved for
small scale sector. With effect from the Budget of 2001-
2002, excise duty on processed fruit and vegetable products
has been brought down from 16% to zero.
In the Ten Plan Schemes, a number of components have
been included for approval like value added centres,
integrated cold chain, bar coding and assistance for market
intelligence and market survey, etc. These innovative
components of the schemes provide impetus for speedy growth
of the sector. Further, the sector, as per the Report of
the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)
has registered a growth of 5.8% during the Ninth Plan,
which is comparable to other sectors.