No Plan to Tax Agriculture Income: Arun Jaitley

Putting rest to the speculations on the imposition of an income tax on agriculture, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that government has no such plans to do so.

“As per the Constitutional Allocation of Powers, the Central Government has no jurisdiction to impose tax on agricultural income,” said the Finance Minister whose response comes close on the heels of the NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy’s suggestion to tax agriculture income.

“On expanding the base on the personal income tax side, other than elimination of exemptions, is to also tax rural sector, including agriculture income above certain threshold,” Debroy said.

However, NITI Aayog, the Centre’s main think-tank, does not concur with Debroy’s view and has distanced itself from his comment to tax agriculture income above a certain threshold saying Debroy’s views were personal and not those of the Aayog.

NITI Aayog also clarified that no recommendation to tax the agricultural income been made anywhere in the Three Years Action Plan circulated to the chief ministers at the governing council at the meeting on April 23.