Lok Sabha Question No. 1443 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-07-25
Subject: Rice Mills
Ministry: FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES
Asked by: MANOJ RAJORIA

## GOVERNMENTOF INDIA LOK SABHA

## MINISTRY OF FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1443

## ANSWERED ON 25 TH  JULY, 2017

## RICE MILLS

## 1443. DR. MANOJ RAJORIA:

Will the Minister of FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  rice  mills  across  the  country  including  Rajasthan  are  facing  difficulties  due  to adequate credit and capital facility;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the response of the Government thereto;
- (c) whether  any  funds  have  been  released  for  resolving  the  problems  of  rice  mills  in  the country during the current year; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof, State-wise?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES (SADHVI NIRANJAN JYOTI)

- (a) &  (b):  No  such  instance  has  come  to  the  notice  of  the  Ministry  of  Food  Processing Industries. The Government has been taking steps to increase flow of credit to Food Processing Industries including Rice Mills. A special fund of Rupees Two Thousand Crore has been created by  NABARD  for  making  available  credit  to  designated  Food  Parks  and  the  Food  Processing units  setup  therein  including  Rice  Mills.  Food  Processing  has  been  notified  as  Agriculture activity for the purpose of priority sector lending for the Food and Agro based processing units / projects subject to aggregate sanctioning limit of Rs. 100 Crore per borrower. Moreover, with the objective of ensuring hassle -free credit to farmers, the Govt. of India has been fixing targets for flow of Credit to agriculture by banking sector every year. The target for Agriculture Credit fixed for 2017-18 is at  Rs.10, 00,000 crores.

(c) & (d): For promotion of overall growth and development of all Food Processing Industries including rice Mills of the country, Ministry of Food  Processing Industries had been implementing a Scheme namely Scheme for Technology Upgradation/ Establishment/ Modernization  of  Food  Processing  Industries  up  to  31.03.2012.  Under  this  scheme,  financial assistance in the form of grant-in-aid was being provided for Setting up/Technology Upgradation/Modernization of  food processing units  in the country. The quantum of  financial assistance admissible for eligible entrepreneurs under the above scheme was at the rate of 25% of  the  cost of  Plant  &  Machinery  and  Technical  Civil  Works  subject to  a  maximum  of  Rs.50

lakhs in the case of General areas and for difficult areas, the same was at rate of 33.33% of the cost of Plant & Machinery and Technical Civil Works subject to a maximum of Rs.75 lakhs. The aforesaid  scheme  was  subsequently  subsumed  in  the  Centrally  Sponsored  (CSS)-National Mission on Food Processing (NMFP) with effect from 01.04.2012 till 31.03.2015. Thereafter, the said  scheme  got  delinked  from  Government  of  India's  assistance  and  it  was  left  to  the  State Governments to decide on its continuance from their increased resource as per recommendation of  14th  Finance  Commission.  As  a  part  of  the  Committed  /  Spillover  liabilities  of  11th  Plan period  during  the  12th  Plan  period  also,  Ministry  of  Food  Processing  Industries  has  been releasing grant-in-aid to eligible entrepreneurs under the Scheme for Technology Upgradation/ Establishment/ Modernization of Food Processing Industries. As part of the committed liabilities of the 11 th plan, grant-in-aid of Rs. 0.27 crore to three States has been released during the current years as under:

| Sl. No.   | Name of the State   |   Total Sanctioned Cases |   Amount Released (Rs.in crore) |
|-----------|---------------------|--------------------------|---------------------------------|
| 1         | Chhattisgarh        |                        1 |                            0.1  |
| 2         | Karnataka           |                        2 |                            0.13 |
| 3         | Punjab              |                        1 |                            0.04 |
| Total     | Total               |                        4 |                            0.27 |

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