FM Sitharaman cites data to counter Congress on farmers’ issue
New Delhi, July : Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday took the opposition to task for claiming that agriculture had been ignored in the Union Budget 2024-25, pointing out that the allocation for the sector was five times more than what the erstwhile UPA government had earmarked in the Budget for 2013-14.
In her reply to the debate on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha, the Finance Minister said the allocation for the agriculture sector made by the Congress-led government in 2013-14 was a mere Rs 21,934 crore, which has gone up more than five-fold to Rs 1.23 lakh crore in the Budget for 2024-25.
While the Congress was merely paying lip service to farmers during its tenure, the government led by PM Narendra Modi has extended more than Rs 3.24 lakh crore under the direct benefit transfer scheme to 11 crore farmers who have received the money directly in their accounts, FM Sitharaman said.
She also said that institutional credit to farmers has gone up more than 2.4 times and 76 per cent of small farmers are now availing loans compared to only 57 per cent in 2013-14 when the Congress was in power.
The Congress was merely shedding crocodile tears for the farmers while it did not do anything for them when it was in power, she added.
Stating that the Congress-led UPA had rejected the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendation on fixing MSP for crops at above 50 per cent of the cost of production, the Finance Minister read out the minutes of an official meeting dating back to 2007 to drive home her point in the Lok Sabha.
It is the Modi government that has raised the MSP for farmers across all crops, she added.
The Finance Minister also lashed out at the Congress for the irregularities in the implementation of loan waivers for the farmers, citing the CAG report on the issue.
