FM woos rural population: Mission to bring 10 mn households out of poverty

The allocation of MGNREGA has also been raised to Rs 48,000 crore

In a major boost to the agriculture and rural sector to ensure completion of unfinished tasks before the 2019 elections, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday raised the allocation for agriculture and rural sector in 2017-18 Budget by 24 per cent to over Rs 1,87,000 crore with a brand new mission to make poverty free Gram Panchayats.

The announcements should spur spending in rural areas which has been hit due to demonetisation impacting the sales of major Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies.

The farm credit target has been raised to Rs 10 lakh crore as against Rs 9 lakh crore