Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Jan 24, 2007
ePaper
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Jan 24, 2007 ePaper |
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Opinion
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Letters Fiscal bias against agriculture
Agricultural land holdings have come under threat in recent times; acquisitions by the Governemnt for SEZs and large projects, for instance. Faced with the prospect of agriculture becoming unviable and lured by increasing land values, small and medium farmers are tempted to sell their land. The existing wealth tax provisions also act as disincentives to holding agricultural land. Some years ago announcements were made in Parliament and in Income-Tax Department publications that wealth tax, which was levied on almost all types of properties and assets till then, was being modified to tax only non-productive assets such as ornaments and jewellery, motor cars, urban vacant land, cash and so on. The urban-centric policymakers did not consider agriculture per se as a productive activity. They ignored the fact that agricultural land produces the vital commodities that are essential for life. It is time that this urban bias against agriculture and unjustifiably treating it as an unproductive activity is put an end to. This can be achieved by excluding from the definition of "urban land," all agricultural lands, where agricultural activity is being carried on.
V.M.Sivasubramaniam Chennai
Letters to the editor and contributions can be sent by e-mail to: bleditor@thehindu.co.in
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