NITI Aayog rules out taxing agricultural income

Rubbishing claims of taxes being levied on agricultural income, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya stated that there has been no such proposal put forth by the chamber.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi is looking to double the income of farmers by 2022. At a time like this, there is no question of taxing agricultural income," Panagariya told ANI.

"More than 80 percent of the poorer sections of society live in villages and are completely dependent on agriculture as a means of their livelihood. We have not proposed any tax on them. We have only drafted a three-year agenda, which is available on our website," he added.

Earlier at a press conference, Bibek Debroy, a member of NITI Aayog had proposed to levy tax on agricultural income.

Following his statement, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley categorically denied the same, adding the Centre has no power to impose tax on agricultural income.

Supporting his stance, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar on Thursday asserted that there was never any intimation of a tax to be imposed on profits recovered from agricultural activities.