Loans for cold chains should be priority lending: Report

Loans for setting up cold chains should be under 'priority sector lending' and the sector should be put under the 'infrastructure' category to attract foreign investment, a high-powered committe has observed.      

Like agriculture, those taking advances for creating cold chains and its components should get priority, according to the report of a "Task Force on Development of Cold Chain in India".      

The Task Force, constituted by the Agriculture Ministry in 2007, has recommended that the RBI's current priority sector lending guidelines be expanded to include investment in cold chains without any ceiling. "This would make more funds available to this sector," it observed.      

The expert committee, whose members are from both government and the private sector, is of the view that according "infrastructure" status to cold chains will help attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in this sector, which is capital-, technology- and management-intensive.      

FDI will help globally benchmark the industry, it has noted.      

Though 100% FDI under the automatic route is allowed for cold storage and transportation, not much has come to this sector, trade sources said.      

Based on the report, the government recently held a meeting with stakeholders to develop unified technical standards for cold chains.