No matter how loud this government may be on cooperative federalism, it has failed to deliver any cheers to the cooperative sector in the union budget presented by Arun Jaitley on Saturday. The mood is best captured by Sahakar Bharati’s National President’s reaction “ Jaitley has disappointed co-operative sector.”
In a mail sent to Indian Cooperative Mr Satish Marathe was unsparing and said that the budget has failed to recognize the important role of co-operatives. Marathe’s comments are significant as the Sahakar Baharati is an organization close to RSS and BJP.
Co-operative leaders–big and small always felt that the UPA govt was unkind to the sector and a new government at the Centre would end all woes including that of income tax. Budget is royally silent on this as if the issue does not exist. Leaders after leaders had given presentations in pre-budget consultations advocating exemption from Income
Tax for the cooperative sector but to no avail.
In a scathing attack Satish Marathe said that “the budget ignores the well-settled principle of mutuality and continues income tax on cooperatives.” The Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh is also silent on the Income Tax issue though he sounded happy about the boost given to rural credit in this budget.
Welcoming the Budget proposals, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said, “The measures announced are aimed at improving efficiency of various farm programmes and also increasing farm productivity, irrigation and farm income.”
Ashok Gulati, former chief of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), said that Budget is a “mixed bag” as measures are not sufficient to achieve the targeted 4 percent farm growth in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17).
