For decades Pakistan has "flirted with
the idea of imposing taxes on the agricultural sector", but the effort has
met with little success, rued a leading daily.
An editorial in the Dawn Thursday said the
latest but as yet unpublished agriculture census finds that up to 80 percent of
the people in the country's farming sector own just 28 percent of all
privately-owned agricultural land.
"The bland statistics obfuscate one of
the most serious disconnects in the country," it said.
"Whichever sector is examined, be it
agriculture, healthcare, education or practically any other, the elite - who
constitute a fraction of the overall population - are using up the overwhelming
bulk of the available resources. In plain terms, the minority appropriates what
the majority needs to pull itself out of its misery," the daily added.
The editorial said that "for decades the
country has flirted with the idea of imposing taxes on the agricultural sector
so that the economy as a whole can benefit. The effort has met with little
success, given that in many cases the elements that have the power to bring
about a veto are the very ones that have large and lucrative stakes in
agricultural land and the related economy".
"Will a government ever have the will to
bring agriculture into the tax net?" it asked and added: "That
remains a moot point."
IANS
Original article © IANS / Daily News 2012
UPDATE 1-China investigates Agriculture Bank
vice president
(Adds statement from bank)
May 30 (Reuters) - A vice president at
Agricultural Bank of China Ltd , China's third largest bank by market
value, is under investigation by the Communist Party's discipline authorities,
a source with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Yang Kun has not been in his office in over a
week, the source told Reuters on Wednesday, and has been taken away by the
party's disciplinary body, which typically probes allegations of corruption and
other crimes before handing suspects over to judicial authorities.
Agbank's Hong Kong-listed stock closed down 4
percent on Wednesday, while the main index fell 1.9 percent.
The state-owned bank, which has a stock
market value of $137 billion and reported January-March net profit of 43.45
billion yuan ($6.8 billion), said Yang was "currently assisting relevant
mainland authorities in connection with certain investigations".
"The board is of the view that, as at
the date of this announcement, the bank's business, operations and financial
status have not been affected," it said in a short statement to the Hong
Kong stock exchange.
"The bank will follow the development of
this incident and will make further announcement as and when appropriate."
The website of Chinese magazine Caixin, a
respected financial publication, reported separately on Wednesday that Yang had
been taken away to assist in an investigation and banned from leaving the
country.
The article, citing sources with knowledge of
the matter, added that a close relative of his had also been taken in recently
for questioning.
Caixin said Yang was suspected of involvement
in a gambling case involving a Beijing real estate company.
Nobody answered the telephone at the
spokesman's office for the party's discipline body, the Central Commission for
Discipline Inspection.
Yang joined the bank in 1981, a biography on
the bank's website shows. His 2011 remuneration was 915,600 yuan, a bank
submission showed in March.
The biography says he was responsible for
several of the bank's operations, including corporate and consumer banking, the
international department and real estate lending.
Historically, Agbank was a policy bank supporting
China's farmers under Chairman Mao Zedong. It was the weakest of the big four
banks and so was the last to go public.
It held an initial public offering in 2010,
selling a record-breaking amount of shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai, raising
more than $20 billion. ($1=6.36 yuan) (Reporting by Hong Kong newsroom; Writing
by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Don Durfee and Anthony Barker)
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