On the day before the presentation of Union Budget, Nafcub President who doubles as Sahakar Bharati Patron also Jyotindra Mehta, has appealed to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to show her sense of fair play and stop discriminating against cooperative enterprises.
Appealing to the govt, Mehta talks logically and asks why Amul should suffer compared to Nestle only because it works within the cooperative frame-work, he asks in exasperation.
Titling his observation under “We demand equal Tax treatment”, Mehta lists a series of cases of discrimination against cooperative enterprises. Some of his pointers are
Why co-operative sector should pay Income tax @ 33%; when corporate sector has been announced to pay@ 22%?
Why Amul chocolates have to pay Income tax @ 33% and Nestle chocolates @ 22%.
Why IFFCO has to pay the tax tax a@ 33% and Chambal Fertilizer @ 22%.?
Why Small co-operative Bank of Tripura (NE) and such other entities have to @ 33% and HDFC Bank @ 22%?
“Why this discrimination? Tax justice for Co-operatives Please”, Mehta concludes.
Readers would recall that co-operative leaders have been meeting everybody from Finance Minister to Agri Minister on these issues. The issue of income tax on co-op, introduced by P Chidambaram has continued despite Sahakar Bharati and others making umpteen attempts.
As recently as a couple of months ago, Union State Minister Parshottam Rupala in a function at the NCUI auditorium heard the co-operators speak and concurred that there should be parity between corporate and cooperative as far as Corporate Tax is concerned.
Rupala, who is known to be favourably disposed towards cooperatives, promised to take up the matter with the Finance Ministry. Co-operators expect some breakthrough in the upcoming budget in this matter.
Earlier in September 2019 when the Corporate taxes were reduced in the country Nafcub President Jyotindra Mehta had written letters to the Finance Minister, Finance Secretary and Agriculture Secretary.
In October 2019, under the subject “Request for correcting the anomaly between Income Tax Rates for Corporates and Cooperatives” IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi also wrote a letter to the govt. Awasthi couched his letter in politeness “In the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Ordinance No.15 of 2019, it seems that an unintended anomaly has set in, since the option of reduced tax rates has been given only to Domestic Companies and New Domestic Manufacturing Companies under Section 115BAA and 115BAB respectively, while leaving out Domestic Cooperative Societies, which play an equally important role in certain sectors of the Indian Economy”, the letter read.