LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 3975
TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 10TH AUGUST, 2018

SHRI KONAKALLA NARAYANA RAO:
(a) whether the Government is contemplating to give tax rebate on the maturity value of the amount deposited under National Pension Scheme (NPS) like Public Provident Fund and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether the Securities and Exchange Board of India has also recommended to this tax relaxation in the recently held Financial Stability and Development Council meeting and if so, the details thereof; and
(c) the stand of the Government in this regard?

ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE
(SHRI SHIV PRATAP SHUKLA)

(a) No Madam. Currently, Government is not contemplating to give any tax rebate on the maturity value of the amount deposited under National Pension Scheme (NPS) like Public Provident Fund. In this context, it may be noted that under the existing provisions of the Income tax Act, 1961 the following payments from the National Pension System Trust are exempt:
(i) up to 40% of the total amount payable to an assessee on closure of his account or on his opting out of a Pension Scheme; and
(ii) partial withdrawal by an employee from NPS up to 25% of own contribution.
(b) No.
(c) Does not arise.

Source: https://loksabha.nic.in/

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Since the amount deducted from the government employees was not transferred to the Income Tax department properly, the government has now sent notices to employees to pay income taxes with penalty. Not surprisingly, the government employees are not happy about it.

Employees with annual salary of more than Rs. 2 lakhs have to pay income tax. After the formation of the new government at the Centre, headed by Narendra Modi, the amount was raised to Rs. 2.5 lakhs.

The time duration for paying taxes for last year’s income ended in July this year. Everyone, including salaried persons, businessmen, industries, and individuals, was busy filing up the tax returns and submitting them.

Government employees’ taxes were deducted from their salaries each month. But the amount that was deducted from the salaries was not transferred from the state treasuries and audit offices to the Income Tax Department. Those who had filed their I-T returns received notices from the I-T Department that their taxes were not paid and that they will have to immediately pay the due amounts with penalties.

Employees of many departments, including the Income Tax Department, continue to receive these notices.

“Why are we being asked to pay the penalty if the State Governments didn’t transfer the deducted amount to the I-T department?” complain the government employees.

“The Government has already deducted taxes from our salaries. It is the Government’s job to hand the money over to the I-T department. We are not going to pay the penalty,” is the reply from many of the employees to the notice.

An officer of the state treasury said, “The amount deducted as income tax is being sent to the I-T department in parts. The government employees need not panic.”

“If the deducted amount is transferred regularly, then such troubles wouldn’t come at all. We hope the State Governments ensure that such blunders don’t happen in future,” the government employees say.

Source: www.govtenews.com

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Negation of the promises

Top leaders of the present Central Government had showered promises to the working class, especially the Central Government Employees during General Election. The promises including exemption of Income Tax limit up to 5 lakhs and many other assurances appeared to have more than 80% Government Employees in favour of them. But today we see the blatant negations of the promises made by them.

As against the promise of exemption of Income tax limit up to 5 lakhs, a mere increase of Rs. 30000 i.e. from Rs. 220000 to 250000 made whereas everybody know the minimum annual increase of salary due to increments and DA during the period 1/4/2013 to 31/3/2014 is more than 50000. Thus, in spite of Rs. 30000 exemption, the lower income group whose gross salary is less than Rs. 5 lakhs has been charged more taxes than the previous year.

Yet another betrayal from the stand taken in favour of central Government Employees by the then major opposition party is the refusal of giving IR/merger of DA. It is said that merger of DA is not considered because 6th Pay Commission in its report has not recommended for such merger. It is worth mentioning here that constitution of 7th Pay Commission was also not recommended by the 6th Pay Commission.

Moreover, prior to the Government taking over the charge lower level central Government employees had allowed LTC for North East/Jammu & Kashmir by Air. Granting of LTC by air to the 28 lakhs Group C employees for North East and Jammu & Kashmir were chiefly aimed for the economic growth of these statesand more integration with the rest of India. But the Government has withdrawn the facility. On the other hand officers with Rs. 5400 and more Grade pay are still allowed to fly anywhere in India either on tour or LTC.

Installation of Biometric punching machine

Now the Government of India has announced installation of biometric punching machine in all its offices in a phased manner and the same are being linked with Aadhar. In this series most of the Government Offices functioning in Delhi has already been installed and the remaining offices have been asked to install the machine immediately. But, merely installing biometric punching machine and asking the employees to report duty in time will not solve the issue. A section of employees especially employees belong to lower income group working in Delhi offices are living outside Delhi. It has come to know that persons residing more than 150 Kms away from Delhi are attending duties in Delhi offices by travelling local trains & other conveyance. What prevent them to stay in Delhi? First reason is non allocation of Government quarters in the nearby places of their posting. Secondly, the living cost of Delhi is not bearable to a low class employee because the successive pay commissions and Governments neglected them. According to the 6th Pay Commission pay structure MTS, LDC or the posts with equivalent grade would not get net monthly salary more than Rs. 14000-16000. How they manage a family with this meager amount? So they used to live in the joint family in the home villages in the nearby areas of Delhi. Since being the value of humanity is above than everything, Government should study and solve the problems faced by this section also.

By concluding this, I would like to produce a comment written by an anonymous person on Ministry of Finance directive to keep economy in use of paper in Central Government Offices. “Finance Ministry, Dept of expenditure, DoPT is the major breeding grounds of unnecessary expenditures. They are the root cause of many court cases. They did not accept to implement the judgment to similarly placed employees, like the case of MACP in promotional hierarchy. This lead many cases filed in various courts all over India. This result into huge expenditure to govt. in respect of legal adviser fee, court fee etc. But they go on speaking about economy in use of paper. They never apply their mind to curtail court case expenditure”.

Source: http://aiamshq.blogspot.in/

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Last date for filing of Income Tax Returns extended to August 5

The government on Wednesday extended the last date for filing of income tax returns by five days to August 5.

The due date,which was July 31,has been extended in wake of “unprecedented surge” in number of I-T returns being filed electronically.

“As a measure of taxpayers convenience,it has been decided to extend the due date of filing of returns from July 31,2013 to August 5,2013,” the Finance Ministry said.

As per the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT),there has been an unprecedented surge in number of returns being e-filed.

This year till July 30,about 92 lakh returns have been electronically filed,which is 46.8 per cent higher than the returns e-filed during the corresponding period last fiscal.

Source:  http://indianexpress.com

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Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Finance said that tax structure needs to be further simplified so that it is easy for tax payers to comply and pay off the tax due from them. She said that the citizens want to become lawful compliant rather than tax evaders.

Ms Sitharaman was delivering the Valedictory Address at the conclusion of the two-day Annual Conference of Principal Chief Commissioners, Principal Director Generals, Chief Commissioners and Director Generals of Income Tax here today. She hoped that the delebrations of the two-day Conference would be helpful to the senior officers in handling various tax related issues and in reducing tax litigation and strengthening of grievance redressal mechanism.

Earlier Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Finance released a Handbook on ‘Effective Handling of Cases before Settlement Commission’.

The Valedictory Address was also attended by Shri Shaktikant Das, Revenue Secretary, Chairman and Members of CBDT and senior officers of the Revenue Department among others.

Earlier, Shri R.K. Tiwari, Chairman CBDT gave details of the two day deliberations of the 30th Annual Conference of Principal Chief Commissioners, Principal Director Generals, Chief Commissioners and Director Generals of Income Tax two-day and its major highlights. He assured that the officers of the Department will make all out efforts to achieve their respective targets in a transparent and fair manner.

He also said that the deliberations during the Annual Conference were very fruitful and would help the officers in dealing with various day to day tax related matters in an effective manner

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The Income Tax Department has launched an easy-to-use online calculator on its website. User can calculate his/her income tax based on the income and complete the tax formalities, including paying the tax, online.

Information and details regarding the tax amount to be paid have been sent to the email id of all taxpayers. Based on this, taxpayers can calculate the amount of tax they will have to pay for their various incomes and fill up the online form appropriately.

The online calculator helps in calculating taxes from bonuses and incentives, income from assets like house, capital gains, business, profits from trade, and agricultural income.

Launching of the online calculator is part of the Government’s efforts to encourage and simplify tax payment processes.

Tax Calculator as per Union Budget 2014-2015.

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Income Tax relaxation on the expenditure of serious diseases, the ‘diseases prescribed under Rule 3A (2) of the Rules include cancer’.

On 13th August 2013, the Minister of Health and Family Welfare has replied to a question above mentioned that “Under the provisions of section 80DDB of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the ‘Act”), a deduction upto Rs.40,000/-, on account of medical treatment of specified diseases is allowed from the total income of the assessee.

The limit is increased to Rs.60,000/- if the amount is paid on the treatment of a person who is of the age is 60 years or more. The diseases specified in the Rule 11DD of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 (the “Rules”) include malignant cancers and expenditure on its treatment is eligible for deduction under section 80 DDB.

Further, for the salaried class, as per section 17(2) of the Act, any amount paid by the employer in respect of any expenditure incurred by the employee on his medical treatment or treatment of any member of his family in respect of prescribed diseases is not treated as perquisite in the hands of the employee. The diseases prescribed under Rule 3A (2) of the Rules include cancer”.

Source: http://centralgovernmentemployeesnews.in/

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