Will boost industry; tea body welcomes Union Budget proposals

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJuly 23, 2024

Welcoming the Union Budget, Tea Association of India (TAI) on Tuesday said the projected budget proposals for 2024-25 fiscal is strong on employment & skill development, boosting the rural economy, and capital expenditure, and it would provide a fillip for certain sectors like promotion of tourism, clean energy and adopting a new policy towards upgrading digital infrastructures in various spheres such as agriculture etc.

In a statement here, TAI secretary general PK Bhattacharjee expressed gratefulness to the government for the scheme “Pradhan Mantri Cha Shramik Protsahan Yojana” (PMCSPY)” devised for the welfare of tea workers, especially women and their children in Assam and West Bengal.

“As proposed earlier in the budget speech of 2021-22, Rs 1,000 crores will be provided for the scheme and is aimed at making need-based interventions in tea garden areas for interalia strengthening provisions of education and health services to the tea workers. The scheme will be implemented in the period of FY 2024-25 and 2025-26,” he said.

Bhattacharjee said under “productivity and resilience agriculture” proposals for agriculture resilience, release of new climate resilience verities and Digital public infrastructure are proposed, which will surely boost the rural economy of the country.

The government has particularly emphasised “employment and skilling”. Different skilling programmes along with schemes for Skilling loans with guarantees from government funds and educational loans will help create an efficient workforce in the future. The tea industry will also be benefitted from the same,” he also said.

He further said development of digital and banking infrastructure in the tea-growing regions have been a constant demand of the tea industry for several years. The announcement of bank branches in the northeastern region” is a positive step towards this direction.

The announcement of the continuation of PMAY and PMGSY will surely benefit the rural population including the tea garden population, Bhattacharjee said.

“The TAI welcomed the proactive step of the government in addressing the “economic policy framework” by proposing to initiate and incentivize reforms for improving the productivity of factors of production and facilitating markets and sectors to become more efficient. These reforms will cover all factors of production, namely land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship, and technology as an enabler of improving total factor productivity and bridging inequality,” he added.