Reiterating that the government has no plans to tax agricultural income, including that of prosperous farmers, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the a rich farmer is a very rare institution and not the norm and pointed that the farm sector is in distress and therefore there was no question of taxing agricultural income.
While noting that farmers should be helped and not taxed, Jaitley said that the government is very clear on this and further clarified that the Central government has no power to impose tax on agricultural income as it is the power of state governments, mentioning that none of the states is going to do it.
Earlier, NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy had stated that farmers should be liable to pay tax on their incomes at par with other citizens after seasonal fluctuations are adjusted. However, the NITI Aayog had clarified that Bibek Debroy’s suggestions on taxing farm income is neither the view of the Aayog nor is such a recommendation made anywhere in the Draft Action Agenda document as circulated to the Governing Council at the meeting on April 23, 2017.