How can farmers be taxed?, asks NITI Ayog Vice-Chairman

Hyderabad: Instead of being sceptical about taxing the farmers, the right question to put should be, how can they get the proper price of their produce, NITI Aayog’s vice chairman, Arvind Panagariya stated.

“We must have policies in place that would give better prices to farmers. And this is where the NITI Aayog, in collaboration with the state governments and on behalf of the Centre, tries to accomplish (the task of proper) marketing of agricultural produce,” he said, reported by Huffington Post.

“It must be done in such a way that farmers get a fair price. Those are the policies we need to change so that farmers get the fair share of the price,” he further added.

While speaking at an event organised by the Swarna Bharat Trust here, headed by PM Modi. Panagariya said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has committed to double the agricultural income by 2022 and the government is reforming the technology and pricing towards that direction.

“We need to increase productivity on farming… With this spirit that the government is also coming out with policies to foster growth and give higher wages to our workers. With higher revenues, the government can carry out the social programmes,” the economist said.

When he was asked about taxing the farmers in response to an opinion of one of the members of NITI Aayog, he told that there is no question of taxing the rural population who depend on agriculture for a living.

“If you look at the poverty in India, 80 percent of the poor, no matter how you measure it, in rural areas are largely dependent on farming. So, where is the question of taxing farmers?” he asked.