LAHORE, June 18: The Punjab government on Wednesday defended the flat rate of abiana and termed it an attempt at ending farmers’ dependence on corrupt patwaris.

An official spokesman said the department had conducted a study in 80 villages of 17 districts and found 75 per cent of farmers supportive of the idea.

The department, he said, had been suffering from increasing expenditures and decreasing Abiana collection for the last 10 years. The abiana estimates have ranged between 30 to 53 per cent of the total budget of the department, and the gap has further increased with the recent enhancement of salaries. This forced the department to revise the whole system.

At present, the department is recovering only Rs1.6 billion on account of abiana against expectations of Rs2.15 billion, whereas its total expenditures stand at Rs5.1. This whopping gap of Rs3.5 billion has forced the department to improve its collection system.

Another option was to increase the rate of Abiana in direct proportion to expenditures. In this case, the rate would have gone up to Rs355 per acre per year —- Rs225 for the rabi crop and Rs130 for kharif. This would have generated Rs6.559 billion and met the departmental budget. Another dimension of the problem is that the current recovery rate is only 80 per cent. Abiana could have further shot up to Rs400 per acre if the shortfall was covered. “However, the government did not want it for understandable reasons,” he remarked.

This left the department and the government with one option —- to do away with the present corrupt system built on the discretion of patwaris. At present, Rs93 abiana is being charged for cotton (kharif) and Rs59 for wheat (rabi). Considering it an acceptable level, the government moved to levy Rs90 on the kharif crop and Rs60 on the rabi. During kharif, around 21 million acres are cultivated and during rabi 13.9 million. These could fetch the government Rs2.724 billion and lessen the fiscal load on the department. The proposed assessment is higher than the current level of Rs2.155 billion.

The proposed study had also given another option —- increase the abiana rate to Rs200 per acre —- Rs120 for kharif and Rs80 for rabi. This could have generated Rs3.647 billion. But again, it was not acceptable to the government.

It had also recommended complete waiver of abiana, because farmers were already under tremendous fiscal pressure because of the increase in diesel prices, electricity rates, prices of fertilizers, insecticides and other agriculture taxes. The waiver could have cost the government Rs5 billion but brought a major relief to farmers. However, the option was not considered because of the paucity of funds.