Only For The Truly Needy? No Farm Income Support For Taxpayers, Government Employees, Professionals

The Centre’s scheme of income support for farmers, announced last week in the Union budget, will exclude Income Tax assessees and sitting or former Members of Parliament or State legislatures from the list of the beneficiaries, reports The Hindu.

According to the report, the list of exclusions includes former and present constitutional posts holders such as Governors or Election Commissioners; serving or retired employee and officers of the union or state government as well as those of public sector enterprises, autonomous institutions and local bodies. Pensioners who are getting more than Rs 10,000 every month will also not be covered.

Those income tax assessees who paid the tax in the last assess year would also be not eligible for the scheme, which envisages the payment of Rs 6,000 per annum to marginal and small farmers (each holding cultivable land up to 2 hectares), according to the scheme’s operational guidelines.

The guidelines also exclude professionals like doctors, lawyers, engineers, chartered accountants and architects apart from the institutional landholders.

However, class IV or group D employees have been exempted from the exclusion.

As per the report, the cut-off date for beneficiaries’ eligibility determination has been set by the Centre as 1 February 2019. The Centre has reportedly made it clear that no subsequent changes would be considered for the eligibility of benefit for 5 years.