Tax on agro-income intended to finish farmers: Congress

Mumbai, April 29 (IANS) The proposal to tax agricultural income was a "plan to finish off the farmers" in the country, Congress' Maharashtra's leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said on Saturday.

Criticising the move, mooted by Chief Economic Advisor, Arvind Subramanian, he said instead of helping the farmers in their financial crises, the government is bent on finishing the farming community by proposing such a tax.

"The government has not announced a loan waiver, not compensated losses due to natural calamities, not giving proper remuneration prices for agricultural produce leading to further distress, added to the problems created by demonetization," said Vikhe-Patil, the Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

In this context, he announced that villages across the state will pass resolutions demanding writing off of farm debts and remunerative prices giving 50 percent benefits to the farmers, on May 1, which is Maharashtra Day.

The resolutions will be passed by special meetings of various gram panchayats, and be conveyed to the state government, he added during the ongoing second phase of the combined opposition's 'Sangharsh Yatra'.

The 'Sangharsh Yatra', demanding complete farm loans waiver on the lines of the Uttar Pradesh scheme and other demands on farmers issues, has elicited huge response from the farming community across the state.