KARACHI- Imposition of Agricultural Income became a bone of contention between the two major coalition partners, PPP and MQM with legislators of former opposing and latter supporting the levying of the tax in their speeches made on the floor of the Sindh assembly during the debate on the provincial budget here on Friday. The PPP legislators robustly opposed imposition of agricultural income arguing that the land and farm holders already pay a number of taxes such as water charges, land tax and other taxes on the agricultural inputs. Meanwhile MQM legislators also spoke strongly to bring the income from agriculture under the tax net which they argued was the need of the hour as the government needed revenue to carry out its poor welfare oriented projects. MQM argued that when the land and farm owners enjoy huge subsidy on agricultural inputs they should also pay the taxes on their farm income. However, the debate on the issue was cool and friendly and they listened to each others arguments for and against the levying or otherwise of agricultural income calmly. PPP lawmakers, in support of their stand on agricultural tax said that land/ farm holder were the only people who equally share their crops with the haris and asked do the businessmen/ industrialists share their profits in similar way with their employees. PPP member Syed Javed Shah said that the opinion of the mostly urban population was swayed against the owners of the land because they own expensive vehicles. But this perception is not correct if the land owners earn they also loose extensively due the natures vagaries some time their crop is inundated and some time the crops suffer badly because virus attack. When this happen, no body come forward to help the land owners, he argued. He said most of the land owners would swap their lands if they are allotted buildings and plots in the urban centres where they can earn more with little trouble than what they earn from their land holdings. The PPP member said that under the obtaining conditions there was need to pay more attention to agriculture sector and to improve the productivity of the cultivable land. He demanded flat rate of electricity on agriculture tube well which would help in increasing the farm products. However, this argument did not cut well with the urban based MQM legislator who insisted that imposition of agricultural income tax have become inevitable considering the precarious state of financial health of the country which needed revenue from every source to run its welfare programmes. If the land lords remain holy cow and avoid what is coming then there will be discontent in the society and landlords would be the ultimate sufferers, argued MQN legislator Tahir Qureshi. The PPP parliamentarian who were critical of the budget only a week back have suddenly tone down their criticism and now concentrating to demand funds for their constituencies. This has happened after the recent visit of PPP Co-Chairperson and President Asif Ali Zardari to the city. It was gathered through the reliable sources that a directive has been given to the PPP legislators in Sindh not to highlight the shortcoming of the budget and to speak on the positive points. As many as 20 legislators including Abdus Sattar Rajpar, Dr Nasrullh Baloch, Agha Taimur, Najma Saeed Chawla, Rasheeda Panhwar, Sajeela Leghari and Tauqeer Fatima Bhutto of PPP while Ms. Shahnaz, Waseem Ahmed, Arif Peter of MQM took part in the budget discussion. The house, which resumed business with Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro in the chair at 11-30 two hour beyond the scheduled time of 9-30 A.M conducted question hour of Local Government Department and was adjourned till Saturday morning.