HYDERABAD: Putting an end to the speculation on taxation of farmers, NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya on Saturday said the question of levying taxes from agricultural income does not arise.
"There is no question of farmers being taxed. All details regarding taxation have already been put up on government websites," said the vice chairman. Over 80 per cent of our rural area is connected to agriculture, our focus is to double farm income by 2022, he added.
The clarification comes a week after a NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy, opined that taxes should be imposed on farm income above a certain threshold. Shortly after the comment was made, Arun Jaitly, the finance minister stepped in to clarify saying no taxes will be imposed. But on Friday, Arvind Subramanian, chief economic advisor said a distinction could be made between the poor and rice farmers.
Skill development training
Panagariya was speaking at an event held by Swarna Bharat Trust on Saturday. The event was also attended by minister for urban development M Venkaiah Naidu, who inaugurated a mega medical camp and distributed skill development course completion certificates to trainees of Swarna Bharat Trust.
He asked Non-Governmental Organisations to join hands with the government to undertake skill development programmes for youth.
"If China is the manufacturing hub of the world then we can be the human resource hub of the world," said Venkaiah Naidu. He also commended the efforts taken by the trust to provide skill development training to close to 25,000 youths. He congratulated the 51 youths who took skill development courses related to the pharma industry.
However, Panagariya was skeptical about a few of the courses in the skill development programme. "Skill development courses for tasks such as tailoring will become obsolete due to automation," said the vice chairman of NITI aayog. "However, not all industries will be able to switch to automation," he added.
"It is important that we periodically update our skill development programme. This will allow us to readjust to the realities of a job market after automation," said Panagriya. "Automation will be the industrial revolution 4.0," he added.