Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha on Monday demanded Finance Minister P Chidambaram to immediately withdraw his decision to subjecting agricultural land to Wealth Tax.
In a letter to the Finance Minister, Sinha claimed the matter has now assumed alarming proportions as tax officials are approaching agriculturists whose land unfortunately falls within the jurisdiction of a municipality and is not covered under exemptions.
“As urbanisation grows, more and more areas are being declared as Municipalities and poor farmers whose land fall within the municipality or within the area which is not more than 8 km from the local limits of the municipality are being increasingly subjected to Wealth Tax,” Sinha wrote to Chidambaram.
He cited example of Punjab, where several agricultural land have been attached by tax officials for non-payment of wealth tax. “The matter calls for an urgent review. May I, therefore, request you to move an urgent amendment to the Finance Bill and undo this wrong to the agriculturists with retrospective effect,” the BJP leader said in his letter to the Finance Minister.