Congress: Farm tax talks expose Modi govt’s anti-farmer mindset

THE CONGRESS on Saturday accused the Centre of “backstabbing” farmers by talking about levying tax on their agricultural income.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said the proposal has exposed the BJP’S hidden “anti-farmer mindset”.

He said both NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy and chief economic adviser (CEA) Arvind Subramanian has spoken of taxing farm income, and that RBI governor Urjit Patel had earlier called farm loan waivers as a bad idea, as it undermines credit discipline.

Azad said all this talk was aimed at testing the waters and creating an environment to impose tax on farm income.

“The complete apathy and insensitivity of the government, which is trying to impose tax on farmers through the backdoor is exposed by the fact that while Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tried to contradict Debroy's proposal, the CEA wholeheartedly supported taxing farmers,” Azad said.

Subramanian had argued that states which have the option to levy the tax should make a distinction between rich and poor farmers.

Azad said farmers pay a lot of indirect taxes including, in the form of excise duty and VAT on diesel.

On the Justice S N Dhingra report on alleged irregularities in allotment of land licences in Gurgaon, Azad said, “Whatever commission it may be, all these commissions (and) inquiries are political vendetta of worst order .... Whatever is legally possible, we will definitely fight.”

He said the Congress has been in government for decades together but has “never victimised its opponents, or supporters of BJP leaders”.