Union Budget 2023: CropLife India, an industry body of 16 agro-chemical companies, demanded that the government should provide tax exemption on expenditure incurred for research and development (R&D) in the upcoming budget.
CropLife India has been urged to maintain a uniform basic customs duty of 10 per cent for both technical raw materials and formulations.
The association also demanded that the government should provide 200 per cent weighted deduction on R&D expenditure by agrochemical companies.
Durgesh Chandra, Secretary General, CropLife India, said, “To increase farmers’ income, agricultural reforms are the need of the hour and Budget 2023-24 will be an imminent step”.
He suggested 50 per cent subsidy on local procurement and maintenance cost of drones and their batteries/components.
“This will help in the development of the domestic drone sector and enable the rapid adoption of this new and revolutionary technology,” the association said.
CropLife India is a consortium of 16 member companies conducting R&D in crop protection. It jointly represents about 70 percent of the market and is responsible for 95 percent of the molecules introduced in the country. The annual global R&D spending of the association’s member companies is US$6 billion.
MK Dhanuka, managing director of Dhanuka Agritech, said: “We expect the government to consider reducing customs duty on the import of pesticides.
This step will enable our farmers to buy pesticides at reasonable prices.”
KC Ravi, Chief Sustainability Officer, Syngenta India Pvt Ltd, said that costs have increased in the agriculture sector. “An increased outlay for PM-Kisan will also ensure that farmers get more liquidity to buy inputs,” he added.
Ravi said the industry is also hoping that the government will come out with a special production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the agrochemical sector, which will have the effect of boosting manufacturing in India.
“The forthcoming budget should focus on allocating funds for research and development activities to develop new and more effective and safe solutions for control of pests, diseases and weeds for chemical as well as biological streams. Various forms of incentives to companies engaged in R&D activities can be a motivating factor for them to invest more in it,” said Rajesh Agarwal, Managing Director, Insecticides India.
(with PTI inputs)
Also read: Budget 2023: Understanding private consumption, its importance for economic growth