PESHAWAR, March 30: The NWFP Assembly has urged the government to stop collection of fixed land tax, saying that it is a violation of the Agriculture Income Tax Act, 2001, which exempts Rs80,000 income from agriculture produce, from being taxed.
Speaking on his adjournment motion on the agriculture income tax, Abdul Akbar Khan of the People's Party Parliamentarians told the house that the government was collecting a fixed tax from farmers on the ownership of land instead of their income earned from the agriculture produce. The relevant crop-oriented laws, he said, exempted an income of Rs80,000 earned from the agriculture yield by farmers.
Mr Khan said the collection of fixed land tax had accelerated the venal transactions in the revenue department where patwaris (land record-keepers) were free to exploit the poor farmers. They often changed the nature of the agriculture produce from sugarcane to wheat and hence cause a major loss to the national exchequer, he added.
The agriculture was the only sector, he said, which provided a sort of self-employment to a big population, who, according to a State Bank of Pakistan report, were living below the poverty line in the country.
"This very population have elected all of us to bring a change. The government does not provide them any jobs. They are pushing the cycle of life even in worst conditions. Why government wants to halt their life cycle," he added.
He told the House that the water (irrigation) tax was another bane in the life of farmers. He said the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government had made an unprecedented increase of 25 per cent in the water tax to supplement the irrigation department's expenses, he added.
Mr Khan said either the government should collect agriculture income tax and water tax or the Usher tax from the farmers. It was unfair to burden them (farmers) with many taxes, he observed.
The PPP leader said the Sindh government had exempted 16 acre land and the Punjab had exempted 12 acre land from the taxes. He asked the government to implement its own Act and stop its violation at once, otherwise the farmers would not pay a single penny.
Endorsing the stand of opposition benches, Raja Faisal Zaman, minister for sports, youth affairs and tourism, told the House that he had opposed the AIT in the provincial cabinet meeting and asked his colleagues to review it.
He said the cabinet had constituted a broad-based committee under his stewardship to review the matter and submit a report. The government was ready to include opposition lawmakers into it, he added.
Iftikhar Jhagra of the PPP asked the chair to refer the motion to the adjournment committee. Bashir Bilour of the Awami National Party, Amanat Shah, Nadir Shah, Javed Mohmand, Pir Mohammad Khan of the MMA and Mazhar Qasim from Mansehra asked the government to end water tax. Jamshed Khan of the PPP-S asked the government to abolish all other taxes except Usher and Zakat.
Earlier, Rifat Akbar Swati drew the attention of the House on the inconclusive proceedings of a House committee on distribution of edible oil canisters, donated by the World Food Programme, among the school children in Mansehra. Ms Swati said she had raised the issue on many occasion in the House, but the government had hushed it up.
