Finance Minister Arun Jaitley began his pre-budget consultative meetings with stakeholders yesterday. Separate meetings were held with representatives of agriculture groups and trade union groups. During the meeting with agriculture groups, Mr Jaitley stressed on the need to conserve water, incentivize agro processing and promote balanced use of fertilizers in order to ensure higher agriculture productivity. He said, in order to achieve the goal of doubling the farmer’s income by 2022, there is need for better storage and marketing facilities for the farmers’ produce so that they get better prices for their produce.
In his meeting with the representatives of the different Trade Union Groups, Mr Jaitley reiterated the commitment of the Government to safeguard the interests of the workers especially those working in the MSME and the unorganized sector. He said, the workers are entitled to minimum wages prescribed by law and asked all the concerned industries to strictly comply with the same without fail.