Agricultural Income

A 2019 Comptroller and Auditor General report has brought out glaring irregularities in the exemptions given to agricultural income for income tax purposes. Exempting large income on agriculture from taxation not only makes the agricultural sector a conduit for money laundering and concealment of black money, but also holds back the much-needed modernisation and reform of the sector. Although everyone agrees on the desirability of taxing agricultural income, successive governments have shied away from it for electoral reasons.

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Irrigation Development and Agricultural Wages

Vol. 38, Issue No. 35, 30 Aug, 2003

A Narayanamoorthy, R S Deshpande

Irrigation impacts agricultural wage trends through increased demand for labour, cropping intensity and shift in the cropping pattern from low value crops to high value crops. An attempt is made here to explore the relationship between irrigation development and wage rate of agricultural labourers using statewise cross section data pertaining to five points of time: 1972-73, 1977-78, 1983, 1987-88 and 1993-94. The results of the study show that there is a positive impact of availability of irrigation on real wages of agricultural labourers. Also irrigation helps to narrow down the difference between the statutory minimum wages and prevailing wage rates. The gender wage differential is found to be narrowing at a faster rate in the states where irrigation is highe

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Drought Impact and Vision for Proofing

Vol. 38, Issue No. 21, 24 May, 2003

Bhupat M Desai

There is an urgent need to fine-tune drought relief policies, besides making their implementation time-efficient, depoliticised and accountable. Improving the government's total expenditure on agricultural programmes will not only hold up the sector's performance in the event of a monsoon failure, but will also boost its contribution to economic growth and poverty alleviation.