Par panel pulls up finmin for lower budget allocation for fisheries, animal husbandry

A parliamentary panel has pulled up the Finance Ministry for not allocating sufficient funds to the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, and the Department of Fisheries in recent years. The Standing Committee on Agriculture, headed by P C Gaddigoudar, in a report, noted that fisheries sector contributes 1 per cent to the GDP of the country and 5 per cent to the agriculture GDP.

The committee noted that the allocation proposed by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying for the financial year 2020-21 was Rs 8,396 crore. "However, the funds allocated by the Ministry of Finance are Rs 3,704.13 crore," it added. The report pointed out that during 2017-18 and 2018-19, the budgetary allocation was Rs 2,367.77 crore against the proposed amount of Rs 4,676.19 crore, and Rs 2,832.55 crore against a proposed amount of Rs 4,930.57 crore.

Similarly, during 2019-20, against a proposed amount of Rs 3,532.47 crore, the allocation at the BE (budget estimate) stage was reduced to Rs 3,342.65 crore, the report said. The Committee in a separate report also observed that there was huge reduction in the funds allocated to the Department of Fisheries at BE stage during 2017-18 to 2020-21 as against the funds proposed by the Department and this has adversely affected the various activities and target of the sector.