Interim Budget 2024: Govt can impose income tax on rich farmers to bring about fairness, says MPC member Ashima Goyal

Interim Budget: Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) member Ashima Goyal presenting her wishlist for the upcoming Budget suggested that the Narendra Modi-led government can think about imposing income tax on rich farmers to bring about fairness in the taxation structure. The Interim Budget 2024 will be presented in the Parliament on February 1 and is expected not to bring in any major changes in the taxation system.

"Government transfer payments to farmers are like a negative income tax. Along with that, a positive income tax can be applied for rich farmers as part of a movement to a data-rich system with low tax rates and minimum exemptions," Goyal told PTI.

It is important to note that the Narendra Modi-led government provides Rs 6,000 annually to poor farmers through its PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi.

PM Kisan Yojana is a central scheme with 100 per cent funding from the Centre. The scheme was launched on February 24, 2019, just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Earlier it was reported that the Centre is mulling about an increase in the amount of money transferred under PM-KISAN Yojana ahead of the Lok Sabha elections scheduled in April-May. The allocation per farmer is expected to surge from the existing Rs 6,000 annually to Rs 8,000. The Modi-led government is also considering elevating the provisions under the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.

The Centre is expected to launch the 16th instalment of the PM-KISAN scheme sometime between February 2024 and March 2024. However, there has been no official announcement regarding this matter. Previously, the Centre released the 15th instalment of the scheme on November 15, 2023.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, every fourth beneficiary added to the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme in the past two months is a woman.

As per the data, of the 40,50,375 beneficiaries added between November 15, 2023, and January 14, 2024, under PM-Kisan, 10,61,278 were women, 29,87,884 men and 1,213 others. Among states that added the maximum number of women beneficiaries under the scheme, Uttar Pradesh is at the top with 1.69 lakh additions, followed by Rajasthan (1.56 lakh), Manipur (1.05 lakh), Jharkhand (90,949) and Kerala (66,887).

These new beneficiaries were included in the scheme through the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra (VBSY), which is the government's flagship initiative to create awareness about its schemes. VBSY was launched on November 15, 2023, with the goal of achieving maximum coverage of beneficiaries under government schemes before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

During the launch of VBSY, the number of women beneficiaries in the new scheme was higher than the overall figure. As of November 15, 2023, there were a total of 8.12 crore PM-Kisan beneficiaries, with 6.27 crore (77.33%) being men and 1.83 crore (22.64%) being women. Among the states, Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of women beneficiaries with 29.22 lakh, followed by Bihar with 22.48 lakh, Maharashtra with 15.62 lakh, Madhya Pradesh with 14.84 lakh, and Rajasthan with 14.75 lakh.

During the initial installment in December-March 2018-19, the total number of recipients was 3.03 crore. Subsequently, the numbers surged in the phases, reaching a peak of 10.47 crore in April-July 2022. However, the figures declined to 8.12 crore during August-November 2023, when the installment was disbursed on November 15, 2023.

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