Winter is over, Summer incoming
According to a 2012 RTI filing, there were 8 Lakh people with more than 1 Cr in Agriculture income, who paid ZERO taxes in India.
[1] 1% farmers in India own more than 10 hectare of land. And, they are by no standards poor.
And, as per a paper by the erstwhile Planning Commission, if we could tax even 0.04% richest farmers, it would generate 50,000 Cr of tax gains.
[2] This money is enough to run the MGNREGA scheme for a year.
This post is not against farmers. It is about getting the rich to pay their fair dues.
[3] It doesn't make much sense why a normal corporate employee making 25K/month should be carrying the burden of taxes for Crorepati farmers.
Widening the tax base would not hurt the government's revenues. And, it would improve the life of a normal tax payer.
But, guess how many political parties are talking about it?
True. Poor farmers are also bearing the brunt as these large farmers enjoy economies of scale and can do price gouging to kill us in the market.
Tax the rich. There are lakhs are thousands, lakhs of poor farmers for every rich one. So please build your point of view with this in mind.