‘Onus on state govt to get langar purchases exempted from GST’
Now, it is for the GST Council to look into the demand. State finance ministers are members of the GST Council.
AMRITSAR :Union food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal has said the onus was on the state government to ensure that the Centre acceded to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC’s) demand to exempt purchases it made for ‘langar sewa’ at the community kitchen of GST.
“I was the first to ask the SGPC that what they were doing about the GST. Now, that the mechanism has been rolled out, it is for the GST Council (a body comprising state finance ministers with Union finance minister Arun Jaitley as the head), to look into that. State finance ministers are members of the GST Council, so they should take up the matter now,” she said at the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) function in the city on Wednesday.
She addressed a gathering of farmers and the industry at the function. Hitting back at Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s claims that she had mislead residents of Punjab on the debt-waiver issue, she claimed, “I have not misled anyone. The CM has misled residents to get votes. What is misleading is that when you promise jobs to people, but do not deliver; it is misleading when you promise people that drug problem will be resolved and it is not.”
‘₹10 CRORE SUBSIDY
FOR MINI FOOD PARKS’ The minister said progressive farmers of the state could avail of ₹10 crore subsidy, if they established mini food parks.
“Under SAMPADA (Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development Of Agro-Processing Clusters) programme, the Centre plans to pump in ₹6,000 crore to entrepreneurs and farmers to add value to food products in the next three years,” she added, this would help in achieving the Centre’s target of doubling farm incomes by 2022.
Badal said she had spoken to a consulting company to help farmers make project reports and avail of other technical information needed to apply for benefits under SAMPADA.
She also disclosed that there was lot of scope for vegetable processing with overseas markets opening up for.
The Union minister also briefed progressive farmers about the World Food India Fair being held on November 3-5 in Delhi.
She added that the state government was yet to reply to her ministry’s invitation, but the state’s farmers must ensure that they attended the event and gain from the government scheme.