A Land-Based Agricultural Presumptive Tax Designed for Levy by Panchayats

Designed for Levy by Panchayats Indira Rajaraman M J Bhende With economic reform and the dismantling of the structure of implicit taxation of agriculture through imported- protected industrialisation, accompanied by partially-compensating input subsidies, the case for an explicit tax on agriculture resurfaces with, however, a new emphasis on retention within the sector of resources so raised for infrastructure development and productivity-enhancing land improvements. This paper designs a crop-specific presumptive levy to supplement the land revenue, and presents the results of a field survey in northern Karnataka covering three crops as a prototype of the kind of exercise necessary.