New Delhi: Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh on November 6 said that the Kelkar Committee's recommendation to tax farmers with income of over Rs 1 lakh was "good in theory but impractical".

"Farmers are worse off than they were before, they are much more in debt. Proposals to tax them emanate from well meaning people, look good on paper but who will determine the income," the Minister said while addressing a seminar on minimum support price (MSP) for agri-commodities.

He said that it is not possible to calculate the income of millions of farmers due to fluctuations in both output and prices, something, which any village patwari will find it difficult to monitor.

Citing an example, he said that an anticipated output of one lakh tonne might eventually be 20 per cent lower due to vagaries of monsoon and prices fetched may be much less too owing to market volatility.

Similarly, the amount spent on irrigation and electricity also varies drastically and cannot be accounted for, he added.

The Minister said that farmers' income has already been limited by imposing ceiling on land ownership. The average land holding is of 1.55 hectares and 80 per cent of the farmers have holdings below two hectares.

"Per hectare productivity and income has gone up but with division of holdings, farmers continue to live in third world conditions and cannot pay tax," he said.

The farmers are already burdened with high interest rates of over 14 per cent on loans when these rates are being cut for all other sectors, he added.

PTI