NEW DELHI: The Centre is probing cases of "some prominent people" evading taxes in the garb of agricultural income, but there is no proposal or move to tax farmers, finance minister Arun Jaitley said in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav and BSP's
Mayawati said the Central Board of Direct Taxes had asked its officials to verify the genuineness of agricultural income claims exceeding Rs 1 crore made by taxpayers in their income-tax (I-T) returns, as reported by TOI in its March 13 edition.
"There are many prominent people who have done this and the probe is on against them. When the facts are revealed, don't call it political victimisation," Jaitley said.
Jaitley’s comments came after Sharad Yadav of JD(U) and Mayawati of BSP said the CBDT has asked its officials to verify the genuineness of agricultural income claims exceeding Rs 1crore made by taxpayers in their I-T returns. “Tax is not being paid and black money is being generated in the name of agriculture,” said Yadav.
Mayawati said, “There should be a high-level inquiry and strict action should be taken against those who have made black money in the name of agriculture.” SP’s Ram Gopal Yadav said that this, however, should not be used as an excuse to
tax genuine farmers
.
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