Kisan Sangh seeks protection for farmers from GST impact

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), a farmers’ association affiliated with the Sangh Parivar, is concerned that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) would impact farmers’ income due to likely measures to control inflation, and wants the government to protect the interest of farmers.

“It is a known fact that with GST in the range of 18-20 per cent it will lead to inflation. Farmers will be affected as the government to control inflation may take certain measures,” said Mohini Mohan Mishra, secretary of BKS.

“The real loser here is the farmer who will get less for his produce while he will have to spend more for buying,” he told ET. Mishra said currently taxes were low for food products made from agriculture commodities which were sensitive to price hike.

“When companies in dairy, plantation crops, food processing will have to pay more taxes, they will either pass the hike to customer or farmer.”

The government is looking to roll out GST from next fiscal after the RS cleared a constitutional amendment bill to pave way for GST that would replace various indirect taxes levied by the Centre and states.

Agriculture and farmers welfare minister Radha Mohan Singh said, “I believe it (GST) will be beneficial for everyone.” BKS wants the government to have a special session on agriculture and farmers’ issues in the winter session of Parliament in November that would also discuss GST.

“If there is a way that the tax collected helps farmers double income, it will be good then,” Mishra said. “As of now we don’t see a major impact on farmer’s income, expansion of irrigation projects and even the national agriculture market.”

He said the crop insurance scheme was likely to benefit as it was going to cover farmers who had not even taken loan from banks. Another matter of concern, Mishra said, was that with no major state barriers to protect the local industry, big companies from India and abroad could dump their produce in the market.

“So many states in India have not allowed Walmart to roll out its operations. We hope these companies don’t get an easy entry now with GST coming in. There should be some measures to control these companies,” he said.