The Punjab government today rejected the Centre's decision to levy wealth tax on farmers owning land within eight km of urban areas.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the state cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal here.
The cabinet passed a resolution urging the Centre to immediately withdraw the proposed wealth tax as "the farming community in Punjab was already reeling under an unbearable and crippling burden of farm indebtedness to the tune of over Rs 37,000 crore."
It also requested Governor Shiv Raj Patil to convene an emergency session of the Punjab Assembly on May 3 to discuss the "extremely dangerous and critical situation that has arisen out of the Centre's decision".
"The decision of the GoI would prove to be death warrant for farmers," the Cabinet said.
The resolution said the decision would not only "crush and destroy the farmers" but also deal a deadly blow to the national economy on the whole.
The entire chain of business, trade, industry and marketing chain would be seriously destabilised and brought to the brink of total annihilation by this decision, it said.
Later Badal told reporters that all regional and national parties across political spectrum should join hands to save the farmers.
Badal said he has already taken up the issue with BJP national president Rajnath Singh and BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
The Chief Minister warned of a "grave social disorder as a consequence of this decision".
The Chief Minister and his deputy and SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal would soon lead a delegation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to urge him to withdraw the decision.
Badal said by levying the wealth tax, the Centre is forcing farmers to shun agriculture which would put food security of the country in peril.
Questioning the relevance of the, he pointed out that Manmohan Singh during his tenure as the Finance Minister in 1992 had made it clear that productive assets would not be brought under the ambit of this tax.
He said agricultural land was one of the most productive assets of the country and the union government must refrain from levying this anti-farmer tax on it.
Badal said this move of the Congress-led UPA would put an additional burden of minimum Rs 30,000 per acre on farmer of the state annually, which was much more than the income earned from the land.
