The move will help the sector to get speedy and easy access to bank credit, an official press release said. With this, the food processing industry has been brought on par with sectors like agriculture, small scale and information technology for the purpose of bank credit.

The measure would ensure easy availability of finance to the sector as 40 per cent of net bank credit should be directed towards priority sectors.

As a result, requirement of margin money from promoters would be smaller than the requirements of non-priority sector. Necessary orders, following a demand from the food processing ministry, had been issued by RBI to all scheduled commercial banks, the release said.

Flow of credit to the sector would be closely monitored as all banks were required to separately report credit made availableto areas under priority lending.