Direct Taxes Code and Taxation of Agricultural Income

Given the pressures on government expenditure and the need to generate additional revenues without generating too many distortions, it is important to bring back to the discussion table the need to deal with taxation of agricultural incomes. The issue has been discussed at length by a number of reports on taxation as well as in the literature on tax policy in India. This paper seeks to reignite this debate at two levels: one by asking for a more comprehensive taxation of incomes, implying thereby taxation of agricultural incomes as well. The second is the need to use current legislation to ensure that the exemption base of agricultural income from taxation is kept as narrow as possible as against expanding it.