FMCG sector hopes for tax incentives on exports of agricultural and food items

Bengaluru: With the union budget to be announced on February 1, there is a growing excitement as the industries expect the government to take measures in order to bring the economy on track.

Amrinder Singh, Managing Director, Bonn Group of Industries shares, "As the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in job-losses especially of our rural consumers, we want stimulus packages in the form of low-income tax slabs, job-creation and incentives in this budget. Even Nielsen's data shows overall FMCG sales growth fell from 16.2% annually in the September 2018 quarter to 7.3% in the September 2019 quarter, with rural consumption at the slowest in seven years."

"Government should also announce some initiatives to strengthen paid-work support programs like MGNREGA and others so that rural people can have some disposable income to spend on their consumption pattern ahead of essentials. This move will no doubt promote consumerism but also will boost overall GDP growth. More finances should be allocated on building roads, housing and new factories, which will also generate income opportunities for our rural consumers and bridge the gap to have last-mile consumption," he tells The Hans India.

Shyam Sunder Aggarwal, Managing Director, Bikano opines that in the coming budget 2021, the government needs to focus on three issues mainly.

"First, keeping in mind the headwinds that the FMCG sector and indeed the larger economy faced during the pandemic, the government needs to give a vigorous push to the overall economic activity which would generate more employment which in turn would generate income leading to an increase in demand for FMCG products. Secondly, particularly for food FMCG, the government needs to allocate more funds for agriculture, food processing and strengthening of the entire value chain which would increase farmers' income while raising the productivity and output of the sector. The government should also restore the input tax credit for food services. And thirdly, the budget should provide for tax incentives on exports of agricultural and food items," he says.