Duty cut to revive horse breeding

The National Horse Breeding Society of India has thanked the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for taking steps to help revive the horse-breeding industry and making ‘Make in India’ a possibility for Indian breeders.

The Finance Minister, while presenting the Budget on February 1, had announced a reduction of customs duty for import of pure-line breeding stock.

While thanking the Finance Minister, Ameeta Mehra, council member, National Horse Breeding Society of India, and MD, Usha Stud Farms, said the reduction in customs duty would enable breeders to buy better quality parentage breeding stallions and broodmares to produce young stock that had the potential for exports. Besides, it would also make Indian breeding competitive globally. According to Ms. Mehra, several neighbouring countries were buying a large number of expensive horses from Australia, the EU and Japan. “There is a large untapped export potential.”