Govt should think about taxing rich farmers: Jalan

Former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan on Sunday favoured taxing rich farmers earning above a certain threshold, without hurting the interests of those with small farms. He also pitched for a rating upgrade for India due to a number of steps taken by the government.

Talking about the controversial issue of taxing farm income, Jalan noted the importance of agriculture and small farms in the Indian situation.

"The... question is that supposing you have large farms and you have an income from those farms which say exceeds certain high levels of income, then you can think about taxing that high level of income," he said. Jalan, however, added that a very large proportion of the population has small farms and we should not do anything which can hurt them.

Jalan, under whose watch India weathered the Asian currency crisis, said low inflation and high growth are the main achievements of the NDA government but it would need to do more to reduce corruption and reform the complex administrative system.