NEW DELHI: Faced with a severe fiscal deficit, the Government is likely to tax the agricultural income of rich farmers in the forthcoming general budget as a step to widen the tax net. Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha said in a recent interview to the US-based magazine, Business Week, that tax exemption on agricultural income enjoyed by rich farmers needs to go. Of the nearly 100 crore population in the country, only 1.5 crore pays income tax despite the fact that there was a large middle class of about 30 crore which is almost the total population of the US.

Khurana speaks

NEW DELHI: Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Madan Lal Khurana today claimed a senior Home Ministry official had told him that the Bajrang Dal was involved in the killing of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines in Orissa recently.

1 killed in shootout

MUMBAI: One person was killed and four others injured when unidentified persons fired rounds opposite Gajanan Hotelopposite Kasturba Marg, Borivali (east) at around 9 pm on Sunday. The men arrived in a rickshaw and shot dead estate agent Sushil Kashinath Gaikwad. In the melee, four persons sustained bullet injuries and were rushed to Bhagwati Hospital. They have been identified as Piyush Baseria (27), Madhav Shah (20), Mahesh Shah (35) and Mir Rehman Yusuf Payak (25).