Drop farm I-T, plantation panel tells Kerala govt

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 12: The Kerala government will have to either scrap or declare a five-year moratorium on agriculture income tax to boost the plantation economy, an expert panel on the plantation sector has said. It has also proposed a reasonable wage hike for plantation labourers to allow them a decent living.

The Krishnan Nair commission, meant to study the plantation sector crisis, has also opined that the land tax currently levied on plantations is too exorbitant. A revision in the land tax is proposed. The report apparently also drew from the data of a previous study, comparing the tax and lease systems in other states.

While Tamil Nadu levies no taxes in the plantation sector, Kerala charges R700 a hectare as plantation tax. The agriculture income tax is 50% of the profits, while in other states it is 28%. The land tax, in Kerala, is R500 a hectare, according to the study report.

It was the previous Congress-led UDF government in Kerala that assigned retired judge N Krishnan Nair to examine the entire spectrum of issues in the plantation sector. This was in the context of a long-running labour agitation in Munnar tea estates last year.

Kerala labour minister TP Ramakrishnan, who received the report for the ruling LDF government, has said that he would consider the recommendations positively. The report of the commission also flays collecting building tax for the workers’ one-room tenements attached to the plantations. It has mooted rebuilding the quarters with at least two bedrooms and the necessary toilet facilities, with a thrust on improving the quality of living of the workers.

The commission is reported to have taken a stance that the crisis should not be a premise for depriving the workers of their dues. The plight of the workers who had been living in the quarters for years came under thorough scrutiny of the commission, which had visited the quarters to gather first-hand information about their plight.

Kerala accounts for 82% of rubber , 71% of cardamom, 6% of tea and 21% of coffee produced in the country. Due to higher production costs and poor price realisation, the plantation sector had been in doldrums in the last two years.