Budget 2018: Govt ensures payment of full MSP even if farmers sell below cost

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi-led NDA government presented the Union Budget 2018-19 on Thursday. In the last full-fledged Budget of the BJP government Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tabled a lot of proposals for the agriculture and the rural economy.

For agiculture sector, the Budget 2018 has proposed increasing the minimum support price (MSP) of all crops to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, "The government will ensure payment of full MSP even if farmers sell below MSP."

Agriculture-related stocks gained after the government's proposal.

Also read: Union Budget 2018: Key highlights

The finance minister said the agricultural output of the country is at a record high and wage of farmers will be doubled by 2022.

In his Budget speech, Jaitley said the Government has ensured that services and benefits reach to people directly. "The direct benefit transfer in India is the biggest such exercise in the world," he said.

The finance minister said, the focus is on low-cost farming, higher MSP. "Emphasis is on generating farm and non-farm employment for farmers," Jaitley said.

The Budget further said that the credit for agricultural activities is up from Rs 10 lakh crore to Rs 11 lakh crore.

In his Budget speech Jaitley said, "Agri-Market Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 2,000 crore to be set up for developing agricultural markets."

He further said, Restructured National Bamboo Mission will be launched with an allocation of Rs 1,290 crore to promote bamboo sector in a holistic manner.

Jaitley said, "Grameen Agricultural Market (GRAM) will provide farmers a means to sell directly to buyers."

The Budget also announced Rs 500 crore for Operation Green. It also allocation to food processing ministry is being doubled to Rs 1,400 crore from Rs 715 crore.

For the development of the rural economy, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech said Rs 14.34 lakh crore will be spent for providing livelihood to rural India through infrastructure building.

Jaitley said, "Loans to self help groups will increase to Rs 75,000 crore by March 2019."

The Finance Minister emphasised the Government's mission of providing roof over the head of every poor people by 2022. "We aim that by 2022, all poor people have a house to live in," Jaitley said.

The Government also targets to construct two crore toilets in the next financial year, Jaitley said.

Jaitley said that under the Ujwala scheme, the Government will give 8 crore women new LPG connections.