The government is set to make efforts to scale up the low agriculture income tax revenues, Sindh Senior Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nisar Khuhro told the provincial lawmakers on Monday. The minister, who also holds education portfolio, was responding to legislators' queries during the Sindh Assembly session. He said that collection under the head of agriculture income tax was lower and needed growth. He said that the government was stepping up to increase the tax revenues.
The government acquires revenues in the agriculture sector from irrigation, local and drainage cess, mutation and land and agriculture income taxes, he said and added that only 1344 landlords had paid the tax out of a total of 7366 in fiscal year 2012-13.
Khuhro acknowledged that the agriculture income tax had been lower since there had been no such focus on the collection to grow provincial revenue. Those landlords evading agriculture income tax should be served with notices, he suggested. He however defended the landlords' grievances, saying that they had already been paying other agriculture taxes and should not be subjected to the income tax. He said that the landlords were facing injustice in this regard. There should be a symmetrical income tax slabs for industrialists and agriculture landlords, he demanded.
A maximum income tax slab for agriculture landlords is Rs 80, 000 but for industrialists Rs 400, 000, he told the house, asking for a matching taxation to give a relief to those associated with the farming sector. He said that the landlords had a reservation on the taxation but everyone falling in tax net should file returns.
Under agriculture income tax, the government collected Rs 4.94 million against the target of Rs 8.77 million in fiscal year 2010-11, Rs 6.677 million against 7.994 million in 2011-12 and Rs 101.6 million against 110.23 million in 2012-13, he said, urging that people associated with any sector to pay the tax. The house also adopted a resolution to laud Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy for winning Oscar for her documentary 'a girl in the river' highlighting the menace of females' killing in the name of honour in Pakistani society. MQM's female lawmakers Erum Khalid and Heer Ismail Soho tabled the very resolution.
The lawmakers also voted to adopt 'the Sindh Employees Social Security Bill 2016' into law. The bill is aimed at helping the province evolve its rules on workers securities on their illness and provision of welfare to heirs in case of their accidents, death and injury in the light of 18th Constitutional Amendment, Khuhro told the house. Later, the house was adjourned till Tuesday morning.