India to streamline food processing laws

In India The Ministry of Food Processing Industries is to enact a law to ease the business practices of entrepreneurs and encourage the further growth of food parks, the Director of Food Processing, G. Venkataramani, has said.

Addressing a seminar on 'Investment Opportunities in food processing', Venkataramani said currently there were twenty seven different laws to be complied with by the entrepreneurs, which often made business matters complicated.

Stating that all viable projects would be cleared within a sixty-day period, he disclosed that two special incentive proposals were under consideration. One was to enhance the ceiling on subsidy from 25 per cent to 33 per cent and the other to extend the benefits of agri-export zones for the units set up at Indian Food Park.

The Ministry has been planning to organise a campaign to dispel the misconception that processed foods were for the rich and affluent, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Sivashankar, Chief Regional Manager, Indian Overseas Bank, said that a special rate of interest for the loans from the bank for the units set up at the Park, was being discussed. The Indian government has said that the emergence of Indian Food Park has opened up avenues for the small and medium sized units.

Meanwhile business representatives have urged the Ministry to relax the rules and regulations for the sector and not to dispense with excise duty exemption benefits to the sector.