Media Monitor
Agriculture Industry
Twelve facts on agricultural income taxationedit
This piece is not meant to stir the pot on agricultural income taxation further, but will state some facts. First, Section 2(1A) of Income Tax Act defines agricultural income as rent/revenue from land, income derived from this land through agriculture and also income derived from buildings on that land. Second, Section 10(1) of Income Tax Act excludes agricultural income from computation of total income.
Narendra Modi’s war on black money incomplete without taxing farm incomeedit
The Economic Times The Financial Express
Secondly, it hardly makes sense to keep big farmers and agricultural companies out of purview of the tax department. Companies like Kaveri Seeds and multinational Monsanto India claimed exemption of Rs 186 crore and Rs 94 crore as agricultural income in the year 2014-15. Surely such companies and farmers owning land above a certain threshold can be brought under the tax net. Third, the scale of tax exemption in the sector is such that the government will have to consider levying income tax on them. Bibek Debroy pointed out that two-thirds of India’s 225 million households are in rural India and are effectively not taxed.
How 100 Indian Villages Transformed Into Tech-Savvy Digital Villagesedit
The ICICI Digital Villages is the culmination of a pledge made by the banking team in November 2016 to complete the digitisation of 100 villages in 100 days. The villages are spread in 17 states across the country. The announcement of the ICICI Digital Villages was made by Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director & CEO, ICICI Bank, at the Rural Summit – ‘Sashakt Gaon, Samriddh Bharat’, an event inaugurated by Arun Jaitley, Union Minister of Finance, Defence & Corporate Affairs.
A Poot Fixedit
It shares all this information with a central server, ensuring that the trail of each and every transaction can be tracked by the government, which provides the subsidy, as well as fertiliser companies. The customer, too, has to share his Aadhaar number and follow the same authentication exercise. The idea is to help the government know exactly how much quantity was sold, by whom, from where, and when, and make the fertiliser distribution system transparent to curb leakages and corruption.
Break the Agricultural Black Money Shelter and Tax the Rich Farmeredit
The finance minister has, of course, issued a swift denial, but still, its mere mention in mainstream discourse is a crucial development. The taxation of agriculture income has been an issue considered strictly off-limits when it comes to Indian tax policy. From the inception of our republic under our Constitution, agriculture and the taxation of agricultural incomes has been a state subject. Accordingly, section 10(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, exempts agricultural income from taxation by the central government.
Government plans ‘one nation, one market’ in agriculture sectoredit
In a bid to improve profits and production efficiency for the farmers, the government is working on preparing a common agricultural market for all the farmers. The government also proposed a model law for resetting the fundamentals of the operations of the agricultural market on April 24, 2017. The proposal suggests facilitating the farmers with a wider choice of markets beyond the wholesale ‘mandis’ or markets in place of the present over-regulated and fragmented markets.
Inefficient use of water in Haryana paddy farmingedit
Subsidised and unmetered power supply to the farm sector in Haryana is leading to “inefficient” utilisation of groundwater and electricity on paddy cultivation, a study has found. It said an estimated amount of Rs 844 crore is being spent as power subsidy on excess consumption of electricity on the crop in the State.
Farmers continue burning stubble, say can’t help it till state helps themedit
Though the local patwari and agriculture officer of the area were present, villagers of Ralla village in Mansa were not ready to listen. “Officials can calculate the area being set on fire, but they cannot stop us till the time they don’t give us any solution. This smoke will go up to Delhi once again,” said Inderjeet Singh, general secretary of Bharti Kisan Union (Dakaunda)’s Mansa unit.
Tackling agri price volatilityedit
As the National Commission on Farmers observed, “In an agrarian economy like India, the fluctuations and the levels of prices of farm produce have considerable impact on the growth of production, the inter-sectoral distribution of income and the purchasing power with the majority of the rural population, which to a large extent determines the growth trajectory of many industries. The Government has, therefore, to constantly watch and intervene, when necessary, in the matters concerning agriculture marketing.”
Drought-hit Rajasthan to get Rs 588 croreedit
The Centre on Tuesday sanctioned Rs 5 88 crore as relief to drought-affected Rajasthan. The decision was taken at a meeting of a high level committee chaired by home minister Rajnath Singh and attended by finance minister Arun Iaitley, besides others. The committee approved the assistance from the National Disaster Relief Fund in respect of Rajasthan to the tune of Rs 5 88.34 crore in the wake of drought of 2016-17, an official statement said.
Farmers to get silt from 31 thousand dams in new policy adopted by Maharashtraedit
The Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday adopted a new policy for de-silting of dams and spreading the silt in farms for farmers’ benefit. According to the newly adopted policy, 31,459 out of 82,156 dams in the State would be de-silted and farmers would be allowed to carry the silt to their farms free of cost.
Govt buying, but farmers still saddled with 5L tonnes of turedit
At present, farmers are left with around 10 lakh tonnes of tur dal. And even if one takes into account the quality—the government has set grades for procurement— farmers are waiting for about 5 lakh tonnes to be procured. This is because tur production touched at an all-time high this year, at 20 lakh tonnes. And farmers have been able to sell only a half of it — 4 lakh tonnes procured by the government under the Centre’s price stabilization scheme and nearly 5 lakh tonnes by private traders.
Maha to clean up 31k dams, give free silt to farmersedit
The state government will desilt 31,459 dams across the state. A proposal to remove the silt and distribute it free to farmers, who can use it as manure, was approved by the state cabinet on Tuesday. The project, at a cost of Rs 6,236 crore, will be done in phases over four years. It is estimated that there are 5.18 lakh cubic metres of silt in the dams. The government will issue contracts to remove the silt. The dams have a water storage capacity of 43 lakh cubic metres and irrigate 8.68 lakh hectares.
Maharashtra government likely to deregulate foodgrain pricesedit
Enthused by farmers’ response to the delisting of vegetables and fruits from the purview of the Agriculture Produce (Marketing and Regulation) Act, the Maharashtra government now plans to deregulate foodgrain to facilitate a direct market between farmers and consumers. Maharashtra’s minister of state for agriculture and marketing Sadabhau Khot announced this on Monday at the inauguration of a “farmer-consumer foodgrains and mango market” in Thane near Mumbai.
Maharashtra may give MSP for 22 cropsedit
Revenue minister Chandrakant Patil has proposed to the state that crops like sugarcane, cotton, rice, wheat, jowar, bajari, corn and food items like milk and eggs should be purchased by the government from farmers giving MSP. The government will either sell the items on its own or give it to ration shops to sell.
More farm credit is meaninglessedit
An enhanced allocation in farm credit — Rs 10 lakh crore, against Rs 9 lakh crore in FY17 — was one of the most impressive announcements in Budget 2017-18. This looks like a promising step towards fulfilling the Government’s objective of doubling farm income by 2022. This large budget allocation will help farmers to invest more and earn better profits in farm ventures.
Odisha to stick with health plan for farmers till march next yearedit
Padhi reviewed the implementation of the health insurance scheme for farmers and people working in the unorganised sector at the first meeting of the governing council of State health Insurance Society here. According to official sources, 57,60,525 families were covered under BKKY and 44,08,070 under RSBY. The Centre is sharing 60 percent cost of RSBY while the remaining 40 percent is borne by the State Government.
Towards securing women farmers’ rights in Nagalandedit
On the occasion of International Labour Day on May 1, the Mahila Kisan Adhikar Manch (MAKAAM) Nagaland chapter organized a State level consultation on ‘building convergence towards securing women farmers rights in Nagaland’ at Khonoma Rüfünuo Building, Kohima. The consultation brought together 38 participants comprising of women farmers from five districts of Nagaland, organizations supporting and working with women farmers, representatives from Labour & Employment Department, SIRD, and NABARD to deliberate on issues and concerns of women farmers, their role in sustainable development and realization of their rights.
Demand for wheat to reach 140 MT by 2050’edit
The demand for wheat in the country will reach 140 million tonnes by 2050, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has said. I. S. Solanki, ADG, ICAR, said here that the country has so far recorded huge growth in wheat production.
Cotton acreage to go up on better returnsedit
Prerana Desai, vice-president at Edelweiss Agri Services and Credit, said: “Cotton has seen a unique season. In response to demonetisation, farmers delayed selling their produce and dictated the price through the season. As the seasonal price trough did not play out, the mills were caught unaware and missed out on an opportunity to make purchases at the lower prices.
China conditionally approves $130-bn Dow Chemical-DuPont mergeredit
The mega merger is yet to be approved by regulators in the US, India, Brazil, Australia and Canada. China’s commerce ministry said that it has approved the merger on condition that Dupont divest its research and development department as well as assets related to pesticides and herbicides used in rice, such as metsulfuron-methyl, azimsulfuron, cyantraniliprole and chlorantraniliprole and indoxacarb.