Tuesday Brief

The farmers strike in the country is going to confrontation path, with leaders of farmers’ union bent on rejecting any proposal put by central govt. It looks like the  protest has taken political shape and  without realising which clause of the new laws are harmful to the interests of farmers,  they do not want to discuss with govt and  just want to intensify the movement. Recently I  saw the profile of  leaders who are heading this strike and I was astonished that none of them is farmer in true sense, giving their profile

1 Yogendra Yadav-He is a social worker, he does not do any farming but he wants to become farmers’ leader.

2 Darshan Pal-he represents Krantiveer Kisan Union Punjab. He is no way connected with farming. He is retired Doctor from Punjab Health department. He is connected with CPI (Maoist) movement.

3 Hanan Mollah- he is from All India Kisan Sabha and no way connected with farming. He is former MP (1980—09). He is also connected with CPI(Maoist) movement. He is also General Secretary of Democratic Youth Federation Of India (DYFI).

4 Akshay Kumar- he is from Nav Nirman Vikas Sanghathan. His experience in farming is zero, he is close to Anna Hazare and Megha Patkar, participated in Narmada Bachao Andolan, well connected with media.

5 Jagmohan Singh Walia- from Bhartiya Kisan Union. No experience in farming. He is Accupunture specialist, he worked in Punjab Co operative department. Also connected with CPI (Maoist) movement.

6 Ms Kavita Kuruganti- she also represents some farmer union, but no way connected with farming.  She is a social worker, who also works with 2 NGOs Mahila Kisan Adhikar and ASHA.

7 Prem Singh Bhangu- from All India Kisan federation. He is lawyer by profession, and no way connected with farming.

8 Kiranjeet Sekho- From Kul Hind Kisan Federation. He is also lawyer by profession and his experience in farming is zero.

Secondly, no leader is willing to talk about an important aspect of this bill: You all are aware that farm income is free of income tax. In this new system, the traders of farm produce have to register themselves with PAN with the central authority.

Now first level transaction between farmer and trader is out of preview of GST system. Gradually further trade (through registered traders) shall be brought into GST system. Consequently  sale and income of agricultural produce shall get into govt records.

Now the game starts from here –

The farmer shall remain exempted from income tax (IT) and GST.

Now onwards Traders in Agricultural produce selling up stream will be brought in GST and IT regime. To understand this, here is an example, if political leaders like Chidambaram, Supriya Sule want to sell their Grapes and Gobhi worth Rs 1000 Crore respectively to traders, they will remain exempted from income tax but they have to quote the PAN of Trader in their IT returns.

Now the trader has to pay the GST on this Rs 1000 Cr and Income tax on its income by selling it up stream Same thing applies to next buyer also. Now imagine there are no Gobhis and Grapes (it is corruption money). Naturally trader shall take GST and income tax payable from Chidambaran and Supriya Sule, as when the original invoice is made in the name of trader. Therefore now all politicians like Sule and Chidambaram ( Commission Agents and politicians) will have to dish out huge sums of money which was not paid till now showing as agricultural income. Honest farmers, who actually had physical produce, shall remain free of all the taxes. And shall also remain free of this rut.

Now this is the crux of matter. You will understand now why so many politicians are opposing this law, and they are spending huge money in bringing paid protestors in the front. There are so many videos on social media depicting this arrangement of political parties bring the paid protestors.

What you see during the protests are paid protestors are all these traders and middlemen who will have to pay the taxes, previously they  were declaring the income by trading produce as farm income.

So in truth, these are few points where corrupt politicians, and traders who used to declare income from selling farm products, will be affected by this law, and that is the reason why this protest is  not ending. These leaders have no interest in solving hardship of farmers, but they want to safeguard their tax free income.

Awaiting your comments/feed backs/views.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

15^th Dec 2020