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| The water sermon | | Use the cess for replenishing | |
The proposal mooted by Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia to the State Governments that - considering the growing countrywide scarcity of water and the legal amendment being contemplated by the Government to declare the resource as a national asset - they should impose cess on groundwater, is bound to be debated further in the days to come. That is only as it should be. However, having said that, it ought to be made clear at the offset that while there is nothing to dispute or join issue with the fact that water is indeed a national asset, and that major consumers of this form of energy must pay for its use or exploitation for commercial purposes, it does not seem particularly helpful to tax farmers for its consumption. True, there are instances of water being sold by one farmer to the neighbouring farmer in many Indian villages. However, there has to be a more cost-effective way for them to stop such practices. At any rate, and for most part, farmers already suffer on account of lack of - or rapidly depleting levels of - groundwater. Deficient rains and droughts hit farmers the hardest and charging cess on their use of the limited quantity of water available to them is bound to impinge adversely on their scales of economy. A more productive target for imposing tax on water would be the large commercial establishment that manufacture soft drinks and sell mineral water, as also those industries that consume this precious resource - the distilleries, to provide just one major example. Indeed, considering the gargantuan base of industrial users of water, considerable fiscal returns from such cess can be expected. The money collected ought not to be directed into Government coffers; rather, it must be invested in expediting pending irrigation projects and creating water bodies through their seasonal harvesting all across the country. |
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