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Taxing agriculture critical; yet no plan to tax farm income
April 29, 2017
- India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Wednesday that the government has no plans to tax agricultural income, a day after a senior economic adviser touched a political nerve by proposing farmers pay income tax like people in cities.
- Economist Bibek Debroy, a member of the Policy Commission that serves as the government’s own think-tank, told a news conference on Tuesday that farmers should be liable to pay tax on their incomes at the same thresholds, while taking into account seasonal fluctuations over a three-year period.
- “The central government has no jurisdiction to impose tax on agricultural income,” Jaitley said in a statement, noting that under the Indian constitution only states could tax farm income.
