CONSTRAINTS FACED BY THE FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES
LOK SABHA
The constraints faced
by the food processing industries include lack of infrastructural
facilities, low margins, seasonality, high perishability, multiplicity
of laws, tax structure, market development, high cost of packaging,
etc.
To address the problems
faced by the industry with regard to multiplicity of laws, regulatory
authorities and standards, Government has constituted a Group
of Ministers to recommend an Integrated Food Law, independent
regulators and comprehensive amendments to the existing legislations
for facilitating fast pace of growth of food processing industries.
A number of plan schemes and interventions for infrastructure
development including cold storage; reefer vans, agri-export zones
and food parks have been devised to facilitate food processing
industries.
Rationalisation of
tax structure is a continuous process and Government has already
brought down excise duty on processed fruits and vegetables to
zero. In the Budget proposal for the year 2003-04, the Union Finance
Minister has announced the following reliefs for the food processing
sector: Excise exemption on processed products of fruit and vegetables
would continue, excise duty on aerated soft drinks reduced from
32% to 24%, excise duty on biscuits, boiled sweets, sugar confectionery
(excluding white chocolate) has been reduced from 16% to 8%, custom
duty on dried grapes and preparations based on odoriferous substances
used in manufacturing of alcohol beverages has been reduced to
nearest multiple of 5% below WTO bound rate. (The customs duty
on dried grapes has been reduced from 105% to 100% on odoriferous
substances from 160% to 155%) and customs duty on refrigerated
truck has been reduced from 25% to 20%.
This information
was given in Lok Sabha today by the Minister of State for Food
Processing Industries, Shri N.T. Shanmugam in a written reply.
