Commodity exchanges on Monday welcomed several incentives given by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget 2011-12 to the farming and warehousing sectors.

“Increased credit flow to farming, cutting of interest rates on farm loans, classifying cold storages as infrastructure sector and exempting cold chain equipments from excise duties are welcome steps,” MCX’s CEO Lamon Rutten said.

“The Finance Minister has not been tempted into short-term measures by today’s inflation challenges, but instead has just presented us with a soundly growth-oriented budget. His budget facilitates higher capacity-creation through increased investments, and will ensure that inflationary pressures will be countered by strong supply side response.

“Several incentives to farming and warehousing sectors will help improve the agricultural value chain and unlock the contribution that farmers can make to India’s economic growth in the years to come.

These measures will also play a supportive role in helping more efficient price discovery for the commodity market which is expecting more policy reforms through the passage of the FCRA Amendment Bill 2010,” Rutten said.

“It is heartening to note that government has recognised the need for overcoming shortcomings in distribution and marketing in agri sector and farmers to get remunerative prices with competitive prices for the consumer. Details to achieve this would have given a definite direction to the policy,” NCDEX MD & CEO R. Ramaseshan said.

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