HYDERABAD, June 3: The Sindh Abadgar Board has proposed that the government should tax the net profit of farmers owning more than 16 acres of land after deducting the cost of production and the share of partners or peasants.

The government should exempt landholders with less than 16 acres which should be treated as subsistence landholding. It can work out modalities and rely on self-assessment, third party evaluation or any other method suitable method.

This and other proposals were discussed by growers in the SAB’s monthly meeting held here on Sunday with its president Abdul Majeed Nizamani in the chair.

The meeting disagreed with the idea of taxing the gross production and said that only the net saving or profit after deduction of the cost of production and the share of haris should be taxed.

It said that 65 per cent taxes were indirect, the development budget was 30 per cent and the rest non-development while only the development budget was usually reduced in the event of a calamity, it said.

The meeting said that 92 per cent of parliamentarians were ministers and their perks and privileges were never affected by any calamity.

The meeting said the debt volume was beyond 60 per cent and only farm sector and good governance could bail out the economy. A negative propaganda has portrayed a distorted picture of farm sector because of a lack of understanding of agrarian economy, culture and environment and political, ideological and commercial bias.

It said the last two years of floods and heavy rains had inflicted a loss of Rs2,500 billion on farm and livestock sectors, mainly because of corruption of politicians and officials in the irrigation department.

The network of 1,100 canals, branches, distributaries, minors and saline water drains suffered serious damage and left rivers dykes, loop and flood protective bunds and mega drain LBOD were reduced to a shambles. But the government released only Rs17 billion of Rs51 billion required for necessary repairs, the meeting said.

It said the chief minister and irrigation minister should take notice that repair work for Torhi embankment which should have been completed by June 30 had been left at halfway stage.

It called for an end to illegal occupation of forest land, illegal allotment of state land and ban on political interference. De-silting of canals on the right bank of the Indus had not been completed, it said, adding that an inquiry should be conducted into the recent breach in Rohri Canal.

It said that a cut-off date for remodelling of the LBOD and completion of RBOD should be announced because the projects were essential for saving the river, its right and left bank areas and Manchhar Lake.

The meeting asked the government why it had not filed a single FIR under the recently enacted anti-encroachment law which proposed 10 years imprisonment and Rs1 million fine for encroachment upon river dykes, natural waterways, main irrigation channels, LBOD and saline water drains.

It observed that unless ‘culture’ of influential contractors was not done away with Sindh would get swamped each year.

It criticised the increase in petroleum levy and called for its abolition. It said the price of diesel should be fixed at Rs39 per litre, urea at Rs530 per bag, DAP fertiliser at Rs1,300 per bag, electricity Rs2.40 per unit. Loadshedding should be reduced by 30 per cent.