The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee called the Union Budget anti-farmer and pro-corporate. It would stage a nationwide protest on February 13 against the pro-corporate proposals in the Budget and the government’s failure to address the debts among farmers and the rising input cost and ensure profitable sale of crops.
In a statement, it said: “This is a Budget that has no space for farmers. The Narendra Modi government is yet again sending a message to farmers that it is the companies, and not the farmers, that matter to it.”
The All India Kisan Sabha has also decided to join the protest. Its president Ashok Dhawale said the Union Finance Minister had said the government was committed to doubling farmers’ incomes by 2022, but the Budget she presented was one of the most anti-farmer Budgets in the recent years. “A look at the Finance Bill reveals agriculture and allied sectors have seen massive cuts in allocations,” he said in a statement.
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The Tobacco Institute of India said the increase in the national calamity contingent duty (NCCD) and the resulting rise in cigarette taxation, leading to higher tax arbitrage, would embolden illegal cigarette trade operators, who target India.
The Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA) said the increase in the NCCD would further drive up the trade in smuggled cigarettes, affecting the livelihood of Indian Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco farmers.