TAXING RICH FARMERS

This refers to the report, ‘Notice to govts on PIL for tax on rich farmers’ (HT, Oct 11). Lawyer Hari Chand Arora files public interest litigations even on absurd matters. Can he justify lawyer-turned-politicians and ministers still practising their legal business? How much of such income is declared for tax? If the government wants to tax agriculture then it has no right to declare MSP/MRP of farm products. Let farmers sell their products on their own like industries. Let them fix prices after taking into consideration the total cost of production and profit. Let advocates also declare the fee received from clients and pay income tax honestly. Let them be brought under GST and file returns as any other businessman. The founding fathers of the Constitution kept agriculture out of income tax due for certain reasons. If farmers stop producing wheat and rice, many will die of hunger. Capt Amar Jeet Kumar, Mohali