The NDA govt has begun the pre-budget consultations in right earnest by inviting people from various sectors to voice their expectations. NCUI Chief Executive Dr Dinesh used the occasion to raise some of the long-standing issues concerning the cooperative sector.
”I had 10 minutes in which I touched upon cooperative issues ranging from strengthening of PACS to exemption from Income Tax and Service Tax. I also did not forget to raise the issue of offering level-playing ground on the issue of tax on dividend from foreign earnings to cooperatives, Dr Dinesh hastened to add.
”Mr M S Swaminathan was a great help as he raised the issue of increasing farm-productivity. About 85 percent of farmers are small and marginal and achieving economy of some scale is feasible only through the co-operative farming. Therefore, I put emphasis on strengthening primary agricultural cooperative societies, Dr Dinesh said.
”NCUI Chief Executive said PACS need to be involved in the whole process of providing inputs to the post-harvest stage.
“Talking of viability of PACS led me to talk about income tax exemption. Small surplus that we generate needs to be ploughed back in strengthening the system instead of it ending in the govt coffers as tax,” Dr Dinesh said while pitching strongly for exemption from 80 p of Income Tax Act which has become bane of cooperatives.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitly, , Commerce and Industries Minister Nirmala Sitaraman , Secretaries from Finance , Agriculture, Expenditure, Revenue and many others were present in the meeting. Also the Chairman of CBDT was present in the meeting and he had the first hand experience of hearing out the woes of the cooperative sector in the wake of withdrawal of income tax exemption.
Co-operative representative Dr Dinesh also advocated doing away with service tax for the cooperative sector. Cooperatives should be treated differently from hotels or clubs as the services rendered by them relate to training and education, he argued.
He also raised the issue of taxing foreign earnings of cooperatives. He said “ I reasoned before the august audience that while corporate are charged merely 15 per cent dividend tax on their foreign earnings, cooperatives have to bear a whopping 30 per cent defying all logic. Readers would recall that IFFCO has raised the issue many a time in the past.
Lastly he touched upon PDS and urged the Ministers and secretaries to replicate the example of Chattisgarh in the rest of India. In Chattisgarh PDS is run successfully by the cooperatives, Dr Dinesh wanted the center to hand over PDS to PACS in the whole of India.
Bijendra Singh, Nafed Chairman was conspicuous by his absence, he was the lone other invitee from the cooperative sector.