Lahore - The Punjab government’s move to collect Agriculture Income Tax (AIT) from the farmers has prompted a good number of big landowners to approach the courts for stay orders.

“The big farmers who think that the Board of Revenue (BOR) imposed tax is controversial, and term it double taxation, have succeeded in getting stay orders from the courts,” said an Assistant Commissioner, and added, “The small farmers, on the other hand, are paying taxes to the BOR.”

The Lahore High Court (LHC), while issuing stay orders, has stopped many revenue officers of the Punjab government from collecting taxes on agriculture income, as the farmers complained that the AIT had been imposed without following the legal procedures.

Many farmers have approached the divisional commissioners for stay orders.

“When I went to the Commissioner’s Office for a stay order, I was told to plead the case through a counsel,” said a small farmer, Tariq Ch, from district Sargodha. “The AIT tax is in addition to the agriculture land tax,” he said, adding, “the amount a lawyer demands to plead his case for a stay order is Rs10,000.minimum.  I am lost on both the fronts,” said the farmer.

He disclosed that revenue staff, the patwaris, tehsildars, all, were flexing their muscles after the AIT imposition. “They had little say in the revenue matters after computerization of the land records and issuance of computerized documents,” he recalled.

“Now they are fully involved in the system right from assessing the AIT to its collection,” the farmer bemoaned.

Talking about AIT, the Chief Executive Officer of Ali Akbar Group, Saad Akbar, said, “It is irrational and against the government’s own statistics.”

Although Saad termed the Punjab budget for 2016-17 as farmer-friendly, but demanded the government to reconsider AIT.

He said the Lahore High Court had barred the Punjab government from collecting AIT by issuing stay orders in many cases. “The imposition of AIT by Shahbaz Sharif government would damage its reputation, which it has improved by announcing green initiatives and subsidies,” he noted.

When contacted, a senior officer told this scribe on condition of anonymity the Punjab government wanted to impose AIT on the directions of the World Bank.

He confessed floodgates of litigation and misuse of the AIT by the revenue staff.  He also admitted that the relevant sub-divisional collectors  did not follow the legal provisions in most of the cases.

“Assessment of agri-income was done involving agriculture department, issuance of notices to the farmers, personal hearings and then making speaking orders, the AIT imposed by the said revenue officers would be illegal,” the officer noted.

An AC also confirmed that the collectors badly failed to follow the legal procedures while imposing the AIT.