Moratorium on Agriculture Income Tax: Kerala Abolishes Plantation Tax

Central Government had introduced may schemes for the farmers and PM`s Mission to double the farmers income by 2022 in between the Kerala introduced the relief to the farmers by abolishing the plantation tax.

The Kerala Chief Minister Shri Pinarayi Vijayan has taken the legislative approval ed the slew initiatives to revive the crises driven plantation sector by abolition of the plantation tax on agriculture income tax.

The sector, however, have been bogged down by lower price realization, high production cost, among others, so much so that the total turnover crashed from about Rs20,000 crore five years ago to Rs9,751 crore last year.

The plantation tax was an age-old levy that existed only in Kerala and much contested between the government and the planters. Although welcome, abolishing or freezing such additional levies would do not much to save the sector, said Vinay Raghavan, Vice President of Harrisons Malayalam Plantation, one of the biggest players in the state market, and former president of Kerala Planters Association.

Blessed with verdant green valleys, Kerala has some of the biggest tea, rubber and other plantations in the south. It is the single largest private employer in the formal sector and forms almost 42 percent  of the state’s gross value of total crop production.