The policy of CSR …. Corporate Social Responsibility …. was ushered in to the country only recently. Today the Indian corporate sector is engaged actively in many good CSR initiatives and activities across the country thanks to the Tax-incentives under the Indian Income Tax Law that have been made available to all eligible corporates who are able to demonstrate the realised outcomes of their respective CSR efforts.
Why not the same CSR policy program be extended to the Big Farmer community, Farming Commission Agents/Middlemen and Agricultural Market Federations across India?
All of them are today enjoying total tax exemption under the IT Act since agricultural income is exempt from tax, are they not? Why should the government not formulate a proper policy and enact enabling laws which mandate these farming communities and marketing agencies to demonstrate that as an outcome of their CSR activity “X thousands” of poor, hungry people in “Y” numbers of specifically notified rural and urban districts of the country have received “Z” kgs of grain and cereals per day having calorific value of at least 1200 per person per day?
Such law and policy setting out CSR obligations on Farmers should also provide that failure to abide by the CSR mandates will result in a certain punitive % reduction in the MSP (minimum support price for farm) which today they all enjoy from all government procurement of their farm produce. M. S. Swaminthan Report’s formula for Minimum Support Price based on the comprehensive cost of production (C2+50%) should be recast to (C2+50%) minus % or fixed Deduction for defaulting on Big FSR …Big Farmer Social Responsibility.
If the corporate sector is made to sweat and earn precious IT tax-exemptions only through CSR programs, my question is why not Big Farming in India also be made to sweat and earn its MSP through specific CSR activity in the form of Hunger and Malnutrition elimination in notified parts of the country?
I submit the above proposal as Food for thought to all Agriculture policy makers, Experts, Farmer lobbies , Ministers of Agriculture, social workers, NGOs, journalists etc. in our country who like me believe that if MSP is a farmer entitlement, then it should also come with the price-tag of CSR. After all, as the cliche goes, if there are no “free lunches” for anybody in the world … why should the farmers in India be exempt?
Sudarshan Madabushi
PS: Do you know about 19 crore people in India sleep hungry every day. Such is the sad state of affairs. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a UN body, 33 per cent of the food produced worldwide never actually reaches the plates of those who need it. (17 Oct 2020)
PSS: According to FAO estimates in ‘The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2020 report, 189.2 million people are undernourished in India. By this measure 14% of the population is undernourished in India.