Farooq Tirmizi's article has confused personal income tax on agriculturists with income tax on agricultural sector.
ISLAMABAD: Farooq Tirmizi's business page article "How to design a taxation system"(November 22) has confused personal income tax on agriculturists with income tax on the agricultural sector. This confusion is the result of disinformation created by the powerful lobby of feudal lords who have successfully avoided levy of direct tax on their individual earnings, which go far beyond the taxable limits applicable to other ordinary law-abiding taxpayers, including the salaried persons.
Their argument, that the tax revenues gained through agricultural income taxes will not be more than the cost of subsidies for the poor to offset higher food prices, is baseless.
My long association with the erstwhile Central Board of Revenue, as chief of direct tax policy, proved that governments in Pakistan have lacked political will and cannot afford to offend the landed aristocracy whose incomes continue to remain exempt from tax, even for the rents received from lands and incomes derived from activities like horticulture, sericulture and production of fruits, flowers and livestock.
Jameel Bhutto
Former federal secretary
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2010.
