Lok Sabha Question No. 336 (STARRED), answered on 2019-07-16
Subject: Employment Opportunities in Food Processing Sector
Ministry: FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES
Asked by: Anil Firojiya, Saikia Dilip

## GOVERNMENTOF INDIA MINISTRY OF FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *336

ANSWERED ON 16 TH  JULY, 2019

## EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN FOOD PROCESSING SECTOR

## *336.  SHRI ANIL FIROJIYA: SHRI DILIP SAIKIA:

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

- (a) whether food processing is one of the major job intensive industries in the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the details of the employment opportunities generated during each of the last three years;
- (c) whether  any  measures  are  being  taken  by  the  Government  to  increase  job  creation capabilities by promoting domestic and foreign investment in the food processing sector; and
- (d) if so, the details of funds invested by both domestic and foreign agencies in the said sector during the above period?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF FOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRIES (SMT. HARSIMRAT KAUR BADAL)

(a) to (d):  A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) TO (d) OF LOK SABHA STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  *336 FOR  ANSWERED  ON  16 TH  JULY,  2019 REGARDING EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN FOOD PROCESSING SECTOR

- (a) & (b): Yes, Sir. The food processing sector has the largest share of employment among the registered  manufacturing  sectors  as  per  the  Annual  Survey  of  Industries  (ASI),  Ministry  of Statistics and Programme Implementation. As per the latest available data under the ASI, the total number of persons engaged in registered food processing units by 2014-15, 2015-16 and 201617 are in the order of 17.73 lakhs, 17.65 lakhs and 18.54 lakhs respectively.
- (c): The  Ministry  of  Food  Processing  Industries  is  implementing  various  Central  Sector Schemes  under  PRADHAN  MANTRI  KISAN  SAMPADA  YOJANA  (PMKSY)  for  overall promotion and development of food processing sector in the country and to, inter alia, attract investment  create  employment  opportunities  in  the  sector.  The  implementation  of  PMKSY envisages  creation  of  direct/indirect  employment  for  5,30,500  persons  by  2019-20.  Further, Government has taken a number of policy initiatives to attract investment in the sector to generate employment  like  permitting  100%  FDI  through  automatic  route  in  manufacturing  of  food products  and  100%  FDI  under  Government  approval  route  for  trading,  including  through ecommerce, in respect of food products produced and/or manufactured in India, Creation of a special  fund  of  ₹  2000  crores  in  National  Bank  for  Agriculture  and  Rural  Development (NABARD) to provide affordable credit to food processing industries, classification of food & agro-based  processing  units  and  cold  chain  infrastructure  as  agricultural  activity  for  Priority Sector Lending (PSL), lower Goods & Services Tax (GST) rates for majority of food products, 100% exemption of income tax on profit for new food processing units, 100 percent income tax exemption from profit derived by FPOs having annual turnover of Rs.100 crore for activities such as  post-harvest  value  addition  to  agriculture,    100%  deduction  of  expenditure  incurred  on investment  on  establishment  and  operation  of  cold  chain/warehousing  facility  for  storage  of agricultural  produce,  concessional  import  duty  for  plant  and  machinery  under  project  imports benefit scheme, import duty exemption on import of raw material under advance authorization scheme.
- (d): As per Annual Survey of Industries, the invested capital in the registered Food Processing Sector, by 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 are in the order of Rs.3,68,433.71 crore; Rs.3,86,339.38 crore and Rs.4,17,690.89 crore respectively. The sector received US$ 727.22 million, US$ 904.90 million and US$ 628.24 million worth of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) equity inflows during 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively.

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