New Delhi: Amid predictions of good monsoon rainfall, Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday said the country would definitely see higher foodgrain production during 2016-17 even as he made it clear that there is no plan to tax agricultural income.
While giving his reassurance, he said the Centre will probe if there was any anomaly in the system with regard to undeclared incomes. He said he expected states would come on board with all sincerity in the effort to reach benefits of central schemes to farmers.
It had been reported by TOI recently that the CBDT had noticed that several taxpayers had declared significant agricultural income and had taken cognisance of a PIL filed in the Patna high court which claimed agricultural income is often used as a conduit for money laundering.
Singh also said the government is committed to double the income of farmers in five years and that it would not only be done through increasing minimum support price (MSP) of foodgrains but also through interventions at multiple levels so that production could be increased without increasing the input costs.
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