At present, agriculturists are out of the ambit of PAN and one-by-six scheme is applicable in over 40 select cities only.

According to finance ministry officials, the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) has suggested to the Government to gather information through uniform taxability criteria across sectors in its interim report to the finance ministry on taxing agriculture income.

The finance ministry had entrusted NIPFP with the job of studying the feasibility of introducing agriculture tax in the country.

The NIPFP report has stressed that it was necessary for the Government to first acquire information about the number and profile of the agriculturists who can pay tax and then decide on the modalities of taxation on agriculture, officials said.

He added that the report has pointed out that there was no constitutional amendment required for extending the ambit of PAN and one-by-six scheme.It has said that the extension of PAN should be a part of the information gathering exercise to determine the number that would be involved if one-by-six is uniformly applied across sectors.

The information gathered about agriculturists will have value and validity at all levels of government, the report has pointed out.

The report has suggested that all the modes of information gathering should be used to create a national database of income from agriculture.

Another area, which the NIPFP report has identified for improvement on information gathering front was partial integration provision. The report has suggested that there was a need to improve mechanism for obtaining information on the partial integration provision under which those having taxable non-agriculture income are required to give details of their agriculture income also. In a majority of cases, true disclosure of agriculture income under this provision is missing.

The NIPFP report has suggested that after preparing the profile of the agriculturists through these information gathering measures, it will be easier to identify those who can be brought under the tax net, officials said.

The information will also be helpful in deciding the modalities for taxing agricultural income-it should be taxed at the national level, state level or at the level of the local government.

It may be noted that taxing agriculture income at the national level would require amendments in the Constitution and if it is brought under the ambit of local governments, changes will be required in the state legislatures. At present, tax on agriculture income is under the state governments' jurisdiction.