Badal writes to PM, fears anarchy over wealth tax on farms

CHANDIGARH: Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday cautioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against what he described as “a serious conflagration of social disorder, anarchy and economic crisis” in the event of wealth tax being levied on agriculture lands in the country.

In separate letters, Badal requested the PM to ensure the tax doesn’t over farmland and also sought intervention of union finance minister P Chidambaram and other union ministries. He also appealed to all states’ chief ministers and parties across the political spectrum to build a “political and social” consensus against the move, and said the tax ambit covering farms “could provide breeding ground for Naxalism” and put national security in jeopardy.

“The decision of Government of India to impose wealth tax on all agriculture lands falling within aerial distance of 8 kilometers of municipal committee/notified area committee/corporation ( area) by treating them as urban lands is fraught with serious dangers and has brought country to brink of economic crisis and social disorder,” said Badal’s letter to Manmohan, even as the Punjab Congress insisted the tax ambit was still only a proposal.

Badal stressed that “as agriculture land by its very definition is a productive asset, it can by no stretch of imagination be

SENDS LETTERS TO FM, LEADERS OF OTHER PARTIES TOO, SAYS MOVE COULD STOKE NAXALISM

brought within the ambit of wealth tax”, and recalled that Manmohan as finance minister in 1992 had assured the Parliament to impose wealth tax only on non-productive assets. Every farmer would have to pay wealth tax in the range of Rs 30,000 to 70,000 per acre annually, much more than the production, Badal wrote.

The CM and his son and deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is also president of Punjab’s ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), are awaiting response to their request for personal audience with the PM; the meeting is likely in a couple of days.

Badal Senior is also likely to call on the Akalis’ NDA partner BJP’s national president Rajnath Singh, JD-U president and NDA convener Sharad Yadav, Samajwadi Party’s Mulayam Singh Yadav, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav among other leaders.

The Punjab cabinet has already opposed wealth tax on farmland, and an assembly session is also scheduled for May 3 to follow up with a resolution.