FNB News - KPFBA urges Centre to consider poultry farming as agri under IT Act

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KPFBA urges Centre to consider poultry farming as agri under IT Act

Thursday, 04 July, 2019, 08 : 00 AM [IST]

Our Bureau, Bengaluru

The Karnataka Poultry Farmers’ and Breeders’ Association (KPFBA) has urged the Government of India to consider all poultry farming activities as agriculture under the Income Tax Act, 1961.

The poultry sector is exposed to all types of natural vagaries like agricultural crops and is rural-based, giving employment mostly to unskilled and rural population, hence it should be brought under agriculture in the Income Tax Act so that poultry farmers can avail tax benefits.

KPFBA has made a representation to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the need to incorporate poultry farming as agriculture, among other demands.

While welcoming the objective of the government to double farmers’ incomes by 2022, KPFBA president Akhilesh Babu said, “Poultry farming could help in this regard as agriculture farmers could take up poultry as a means of subsidiary income, if the government provides incentives. Poultry will play a key role in inclusive growth of the rural economy and thereby help to achieve the government’s ambitious plan of doubling farmers’ incomes.”

Other recommendations by KPFBA
The Government should restore Section 80JJ of the Income Tax Act, 1961 giving income tax exemption for the poultry sector; allow deduction under Section 80JJAA for workers in poultry farms and not just for those employed in a factory; and to exclude tax deduction at source (TDS) for poultry rearing farmers. Presently, TDS of one or two per cent is made to those who contract farmers for poultry rearing.

The major capital expenditure in the poultry sector goes for construction of poultry sheds which last for 7–8 years and poultry cages which last for 5–6 years. The government should allow higher depreciation, as it presently does for purely temporary sheds. As for cages, the Government should consider higher depreciation from the current 15 per cent.

The government should allow import of feed ingredients such as maize, corn and medicines required by the sector without any restrictions on quantity and at zero per cent duty.

The KPFBA further urged the government to make available sufficient and low-cost finance with subsidies to construct warehouses, cold storage facilities to store eggs and poultry meat products, which would help farmers avoid making distress sale and ensures them with year-long regular income.

Under Section 40A(3), any expenditure exceeding Rs 10,000 made by way of cash is not allowable expenditure. As the poultry sector is carried out only in rural areas, and most of the workforce is rural and unskilled, and repairs and maintenance work is carried in villages and payments in these cases are difficult to make through bank. It has been requested that the applicability of this section be dropped to the poultry sector, or at least for the payments made in rural areas.