While the CBEC Chairman, Mr. VP Singh deserves all praise for the ex gratia of Rs. 5 Lakhs to the families of the excise officers killed in the Mumbai blast, Rs 1 Lakh to the permanently disabled and Rs. 25,000 to the injured – these are too small amounts of money to be announced in the name of the Finance Minister of the country. Somebody is permanently disabled due to the madness of some terrorists and you offer him a lakh of rupees! It is demeaning! What is Five lakhs of rupees to a young lady who has just lost her husband?.,

This was a great opportunity for the CBEC to tell its staff that at least in times of tragedy, there is a government to stand with you and offer some solace. With so much of money lying in the welfare fund, the Board should have been a little more liberal. When an IPS officer was killed by naxalites in Bihar, the poor state government apart from an ex gratia of Rs. 10 Lakhs, announced a house for the wife of the officer any where in the country apart from paying her the salary her husband would have got till his actual retirement date. If poor Bihar could do it, the rich CBEC could have done much better, especially when they have so much money in the welfare fund. The CBEC should have extended the gesture to the CBDT also as they don’t have a welfare fund.

DDT suggests-

1. The spouse of the dead and seriously injured should be given a job immediately in the department.

2. Give them a pension equal to the last salary drawn by the deceased or seriously disabled – with periodical increments.

3. The government should bear the entire educational expenditure of the children till they are employed

4. Provide a free housing accommodation for the next 25 years wherever they want to stay.  

5. If the complicated government rules do not allow all this, use the money from the welfare fund.

6. In any case, cut the red tape and do things fast. Designate a Chief Commissioner in Mumbai to be personally responsible to ensure that the families do get the aid on time.

7. Treat this as a life, not a file.

This is a great opportunity for us to prove that beyond our daily routine nonsense of assumed collection of revenue and producing tons of data, we also CARE.

IT men on strike – file your returns early

July 31 is the last day to file your IT return and this year it may not be extended. Don’t wait for the last day to file your return; you may not beat the deadline what with the income tax employees threatening to go strike. Their demands:-

1. Dropping the proposal to set up Large Taxpayer Units

2. Drop  the department's decision to outsource income tax forms

3. Clear promotions.

Genuine Demand, May be! The employees plan not to work beyond office hours and not to work on 29^th and 30^th, which are holidays. Nearly 70% of the assessees file their return in the last week of July, and if employees don’t co operate, things can be really bad. Employees should realise that it is no more possible to blackmail the government; hey can as well outsource the job. And government should consider the employee grievance and should not drive them to the point of a strike.

Biometrics for PAN – Income Tax invites bids

The Income Tax department uses Permanent Account Number (PAN) to identify its taxpayers and it is also used as a common business number by several departments of the central government. Till date the Income Tax department has issued around 46 million PANs and around 500,000 new PANs are allotted every month.  The interface with PAN applicants is managed by two service providers, viz. M/s National Securities Depository Limited and M/s UTI Technology Services Limited, who operate approximately 2000 front offices for PAN services across the country.

Now they want to use biometric features, such as finger prints, iris or retina images, before allotting PAN to prevent allotment of more than one PAN to any one person. So they arte inviting offers from organizations engaged in the business of providing biometric solutions for identification purposes and having requisite experience

The department wants to ensure that the proposed solution should be cost effective and should not lead to long queues of applicants at the front offices. 

File returns – Ahmadabad Commissioner tells dealers

The Commissioner observes that There are large number of dealers who are registered with the Central Excise Department under Rule 9 of the Central Excise Rules, 2002, but it has been noticed that some of these registered dealers are not following the Central Excise Procedures properly as they are not filing the Quarterly Returns regularly or/ and have not filed returns for the last four quarters.,

The Commissioner further clarifies that the registered dealers are further requested to note that they have to file 'NIL' report, even if they do not transect any business during the quarter.

This is advisory as of now but if you don’t comply, action as per law will be taken.

TRADE NOTICE NO. 32/2006 - CENVAT NO 4/2006 - Dated : July 4, 2006

Ex gratia - an ex gratia payment is a payment made without the giver recognising any liability or legal obligation.

By the very nature of things no one has a legal right to claim a reward. The scheme itself shows that it is purely an ex-gratia payment subject to guidelines and may be granted on the absolute discretion of the competent authority and cannot be claimed by anyone. - 2004-TIOL-10-SC-REWARD

 This apart, (reward) being ex gratia, no right accrues to any sum as such till it is determined and awarded as a matter of right. - 2003-TIOL-09-SC-REWARD

Until Tomorrow with more DDT

Have a nice day.

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