Nirmala Sitharaman holds pre-budget consultations with farm groups

NEW DELHI: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman held a key pre-budget consultation with a large farmers’ delegation and farm economists on Saturday, where she sought suggestions and took note of various issues and demands of the farming community, two participants said on Monday. The farmers union also asked Nirmala Sitharaman to enhance the cash benefit under the PM Kisan scheme to at least ₹ 10,000- ₹ 12,000 due to inflation The finance minister sought to know the farmers’ views on how the government’s policies were performing on the ground and what more could be done to improve the productivity and resilience of a sector that still employs close to half the population, according to one of the participants. “Another key demand was to enhance the cash benefit under the PM Kisan scheme to at least ₹10,000- ₹12,000 due to increasing inflation,” a second participant who declined to be named said. The FM told the delegation that the Modi government had taken several unprecedented policies to benefit farmers and it would never let the farmers suffer, Malik said, adding the minister “assured” them that she would look into the issue of GST on agricultural commodities.