Writes to Union Ministry of Road Transport that proposed tax is anti-farmer
BKU chief Mann demands scrapping of transport tax on tractors
Chandigarh, October 23, 2017: All India Kisan Coordination Committee (AIKCC) and Bharti Kisan Union (BKU) have demanded scrapping of transport tax levied by the Union government on tractors.
Terming this step as anti-farmer and anti-agriculture, chairman, AIKCC and national president of BKU, Bhupinder Singh Mann has shot off a letter to the Union Ministry of Road Transport pointing out that new proposed tax on tractors, estimated to be Rs.30,000 per tractor/annum and Rs 2500 per month, will break backbone of the farmers.
The AIKCC is the coordination body of farmers' organisations from 17 states.
Mann, who is also a former Rajya Sabha member, highlighted that the news tax was being proposed when the agriculture sector was passing through an unprecedented crisis and farmers were committing suicides due to insufficient income generated from agriculture.
The agriculture sector has already paid more than Rs 1 lakh crore to the Government in form of taxes on diesel. Further, the GST on tractors has been increased to 28%, he maintained, he maintained while arguing that the move will badly hit rural youth earning additional income by way of renting tractors for tilling others’ fields after their own farm operations.
He expressed surprise at the Government move especially when Narendra Modi led BJP Government had promised, in the manifesto, to pay farmers as per Swaminathan Formula which, however, was never done. The PM Modi made another astonishing announcement to double the farmers' income by 2022. “Is this the formula to double the farm income,” questioned Mann.
He also reproduced the latest figures along with his letter to substantiate his contention that the Indian farmers were getting negative subsidy or, in other words, already being subjected to heavy taxes.