Speaking at a media conference here on Thursday, Devegowda slammed the UPA government for failing to take the plight of the farmers into consideration. He said that imposition of 33 per cent tax would sound a ‘death knell’ for farmers. Calling upon all Members of Parliament cutting across party lines to oppose this, GTD said forcing taxes would affect more than 30 crore people. While mentioning that six lakh cooperative associations exist in the country, he said that the sector commands ` six lakh crore investments.
Furthermore, he said that the move was aimed at supporting only private players such as the Tatas, Birlas and Mahindras. He warned that at a time when farmers are committing suicide due to crop losses, tax would burden them further.
Not in history
He said that leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru had never imposed such tax on the cooperative sector as they knew that it would affect a majority of the people. However, the present UPA government has no vision about the effects of such taxes on poor agriculturists.
He said that if the Union Government fails to heed to the demands of the cooperative sector, then they would face the consequences in the next Lok Sabha elections.
Published 10 March 2011, 17:18 IST