There will be no tax on farm or agriculture income: Arun Jaitley

Mumbai: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while taking part in debate over Finance Bill that was tabled in Parliament this week said that there will be no tax on farm or agriculture income.

"Income from agriculture will not be taxed," he said.

According to him, in a few days government will bring Goods and Services Tax Bill in Parliament so that it is able to meet its July 1 deadline. Decisions taken by the all-powerful GST Council have been unanimous, he added.

"Govt to bring a bill to amend Excise and Customs Act, along with 4 bills on GST," he informed the Parliament.

Jaitley revealed to the Lok Sabha that the government’s target was to achieve Rs 9.8 lakh crore in direct tax collections and Rs 9.25 lakh crore in indirect tax collections.

“In the last two years tax buoyancy has improved,” he said. The government based on revised tax target wants to collect Rs 17 lakh crore in taxes this year which it hoped it would be able to achieve.

On giving "unhindered" powers to tax authorities to detect unaccounted and undisclosed wealth, the finance minister clarified that identities of those who come forward and give information on such wealth will be kept under cover.

"Earlier such sources were revealed during income tax raids that will cease to be a practice once amendments to the Income Tax Acts are cleared," he told the Parliament.