13businessGreater Kashmir Srinagar | February 25, 2013, Monday

By Sajjad Bazaz

Bank Watch

Beware pensioners!

This is the time when many of us meticulously focus on income tax. Even as we are familiar with tax related mat-ters, the process of tax calcula-

tion and tax deduction at source (TDs) has been most confusing for many of us. And the current moments are equally confusing for retired government offi-cials receiving monthly pension, as they too fall in the tax net. When is income tax applicable? how to negotiate and reduce it? how to get refund of the tax when deduct-ed at source? For finding appropriate answer to these queries, you have to first understand that income from your salary (in case you are an employee), financial instruments and business transactions like sale of property, inter-est income from banks, commissions and incentives, payment received for contracts and services, vendors, divi-dends and awards or prices earned as money, will be counted for calculation of the income tax. Once you find your annual earnings have crossed threshold limit of exemption, you are in tax net and tax deduction at source will come into force. As per the existing struc-ture, this tax deduction at source is the spot deduction of tax from the income source itself, at the time of earning. A tax payer can even do self-assessment and pay the tax voluntarily after eval-uating his income during a financial year. The rate for tax deduction is not uniform. Now an important piece of informa-tion i would like to share with state and central government pensioners. how the income tax is collected on Pen-sion Amount? Tax deduction at source (TDs) is the best medium of collecting income tax without much of hassles, as the responsibility to deduct tax is not on the government, but on tax-payers. Notably, tax authorities accord a lot of importance to TDs as a source of gener-ating revenue and to administering the TDs provisions more vigorously. That is why several different payments and all persons making such payments have been covered within the ambit of TDs provisions. it’s pertinent to mention that after the implementation of sixth Pay Com-mission recommendations, substantial arrears were paid to the pensioners through banks. The implementation of these recommendations has put several pensioners into the tax net. Earlier they were receiving pension amount less than annual income exemption limit. so due to increase in the monthly pen-sion amounts they have come into the tax net not only this financial year, but they have to pay income tax in future years also. it’s envisaged in income tax rules that pension is included in salaries; the provisions of tax deduction at source (TDs) are applicable in the same manner as these apply to the salary income. This means, deduction of tax at source would apply to pension pay-ments disbursed by the banks on behalf of central/state Governments or any other body/ organization. however, the rules state that pension received by an individual, who has been in service and has been awarded “Param Vir Chakra” or “Maha Vir Chakra” or “Vir Chakra” or other gallantry award is exempted from deduction of tax at source on pen-sion in terms of section 10 (18) (i) of the income Tax Act, 1961. so, this is the right time for them to calculate their income to find out whether they fall in income tax net or not. When the tax will be applicable on annualized amount of monthly Pen-sion? Maximum exemption limit for the relevant financial year in case of senior citizens assessee being 60 years of age or more but less than 80 years Rs.2.50 lakhs. Beyond this limit but up to Rs. 5 lakhs, the income tax rate will apply at 10%. Above Rs. 5 lakhs and up to Rs.10 lakhs, it’s 20% and for net income range above Rs. 10 lakhs, it’s 30%. Those senior citizens who are above 80 years don’t have to pay income tax for net annual income up to Rs. 5 lakhs. This is the time when bank branch-es get busy in calculating tax applicable on each pensioner, whether a state or a central government pensioner. Whoso-ever is found to have earnings beyond a threshold limit for paying income tax, the bank shall be deducting the same from their pension accounts. however, those pensioners who find tax deduc-tion from their pension accounts can submit all the relevant details regard-ing investments, rebates and exemp-tions if any, claimed by the pensioner along with the supporting documents/papers for refund of the deducted tax amount/part amount. As far as ‘family pension’ which is paid to the legal heir of the deceased employee is concerned, it’s not consid-ered as a salary earning. however, this

income is taxed for being “income from other sources”. Notably, there is no provision for deduction of tax at source on “income from other sources”. Let me also share the section which vests the responsibility on “any person responsible for paying any income chargeable under the head “sala-ries”. it clearly indicates that it is the “person responsible for paying” who has to comply with the TDs provisions and thus such person may not always be the past employer. it implies that the banks, which disburse the pension amount, are also under the ambit. in succinct, this is the right time for these senior citizens, especially pen-sioners, to do thorough homework to find out where they stand in terms of income tax issues. Better would be to consult their banks and seek consul-tation for taking benefit of tax saving schemes.

(The views are of the author and not the institution he works for. Feedback sajjadbazaz@greaterkashmir.com)

Don’t get surprised if your bank has deducted tax at source. Before it’s too late, submit relevant

investment documents, if any, to your branch to seek reversal of the tax deducted at source

After the implementAtion of Sixth pAy CommiSSion reCommendAtionS, SubStAntiAl ArreArS were pAid to the penSionerS through bAnkS. the implementAtion of theSe reCommendAtionS hAS put SeverAl penSionerS into the tAx net. eArlier they were reCeiving penSion Amount leSS thAn AnnuAl inCome exemption limit. So due to inCreASe in the monthly penSion AmountS they hAve Come into the tAx net not only thiS finAnCiAl yeAr, but they hAve to pAy inCome tAx in future yeArS AlSo.

FINAL RESULT OF NATIONAL LEVEL SEERAH CONTEST ALHAMDULILAH-JAMMU & KASHMIR STATE

ACHIEVED THE FIRST RANK WITH 8 TOP POSITIONS

NATIONAL POSITION

NAME OF THE FINAL SELECTED CANDIDATES WITH PARENTAGE AND

RESIDENCE

STANDARD&

INSTITUTION ENTRANCE NO CATE-GORY POINT PRIZE

1ST

(FIRST)

MOHAMMAD SALEH KHANS/O NASEER AHMAD KHAN R/O BALGARDEN SRINAGAR

11TH IMI BEMINA JK

201310007 1 82 50000

2ND

(SECOND)

RIYAZ MAJEED MATTAS/O ABDUL MAJEED MATTA R/O MAHJOOR NAGAR SRINAGAR

12THSP SCHOOL

JK 201310001 1 78 45000

5TH(FIFTH)

ISHFAQ MAJID SHAHS/O ABDUL MAJID SHAH R/O HAJI BAGH HMT SRINAGAR

12THSP SCHOOL

JK 201310004 1 74 30000

6TH

(SIXTH)

MALIK SUHAIB AJAZS/O AJAZ AHMAD MALIK R/O ACHGOZABAMNOO KELLER PULWAMA

12THGBHS-KELLER

SHOPIAN JK 201310016 1 72 26000

8TH(EIGHTH)

MS.SEHER BILAL D/O BILAL AHMAD RANGREZ R/O ILAHIBAGH SRINAGAR

12THGGHS-SOURA JK

201310021 1 72 18000

11TH

(ELEVENTH)

MUTAYEB MUZAFFARS/O MUZAFFAR AHMAD HANDOO R/O UMAR COLONY SRINAGAR

11THR P SCHOOL

JK 201310043 1 70 5000

NATIONAL POSITION

NAME OF THE FINAL SELECTED CANDIDATES

STANDARD&

INSTITUTION ENTRANCE NO CATE-GORY POINT PRIZE

3RD (THIRD)

JUNAID FAROOQ S/O FAROOQ AHMAD ZARGAR R/O MODEL TOWN-B SOPORE

B.TECH NIT, SRINAGAR JK

201320007 2 81 40000

5TH

(FIFTH)

GOWHAR QADIR WANI S/O GH.QADIR WANI R/O LITTER PULWAMA

M.A ISLAMIC STUDIES -

KU

JK 201320032

2 80 30000

FORCOMPLETE DETAILS

ABOUT THE CONTEST LOGON TO

www.infinitelight.co.in

Our Heartfelt Congratulations to all the Participants-Organizers-Management and Conveners of this National

level Seerah Contest and Most importantly to those Selected Candidates and their Parents from "Jammu and Kashmir" Who have made us Proud by achieving the Top Most Positions out of almost 110000 participants from all

the States

FORUM FOR REVIVAL OF

HUMAN VALUES

www.humanvalues.in

‘Better irrigation facilities must for agriculture growth’

Mir reviews CAD projects

GK News NetworK

Srinagar, Feb 24: Minister for Agri-culture, Ghulam hassan Mir today urged the officers to endow farmers with all basic facilities saying that their welfare was in the interest of state economy. Chairing a review meeting of Command Area Development (CAD) Kashmir here today, the minister stressed upon the officers to utilize modern techniques for

better irrigation facilities which is backbone for agriculture sector. The minister said that better irri-gation facilities were essential for agriculture growth. The meeting was convened to assess the physical and financial achievements of the department, an official statement said. Mir, according to the statement, said that to increase agriculture production Command Area Proj-ects plays vital role and urged the officers to speed up the pace of work and expedite all projects in stipu-lated time so that farmers can avail maximum benefit from all such schemes.

The Minister said that Com-mand Area projects are greatly associated with the agriculture industry and needs improvement for its better functioning so that state can achieve better direction to achieve the goal of green econ-omy. While appreciating the imple-mentation of Command Area Proj-ects the Minister said that concrete field channels and drains are being constructed which are yielding fruitful results for the proper irri-gation and water resources are uti-lized without any wastage and on rational basis. he also said that by CAD projects we are able to make

efficient use of water resources besides reduce its wastage. On the occasion, Director CAD, Kashmir apprised the Minister through a PowerPoint presentation about the functioning of the depart-ment and informed about various ongoing projects being executed under CAD. The Minister was informed that work is apace on 13 projects under CAD in the valley estimate costing Rs. 368.59 crore with the total cover-age area of 117259 hectares. so far, Rs 78.38 crore has been expended on the execution of these projects, covering 37841 hectares till February this year.

‘Big 92.7 FM takes big leaps’srinagar, Feb 24: With its rising popularity in public, 92.7 BIG FM Srina-gar has ‘taken some big leaps’ since its launch in Srinagar, Kashmir. During the last six months 92.7 BIG FM has brought about further aggressive on-air content and marketing strategies. “Radio listeners have now evolved. They are no longer passive receivers of the content but play as active partners who choose the content they want to listen,” said Abrar Zargar, who heads programming for the station. “In such a scenario, the need for differentiated content has become

stronger than ever before,” added 25-year old Zargar who joined the organization six years back. “To create good content, one has to understand the market really well. In our case, we divide our time bands on the basis of three different types of contents. We have a group of retro hours, a group of contem-porary hot music and a group of hours that play mix – contemporary plus retro. Thus, we understand what kind of music will be best suitable to listeners and then allot them to either of the groups,” he said. “We offer a unique and well profiled audience to the advertiser.” Zargar said: “Our listeners are connect-

ed online through social media and this makes client communication very focused.” “Message creation for a diffused medium is very difficult and only adds to clutter. 92.7 Big FM is a medium with a well defined message,” he said. “Our total client base has the highest growth rate in the industry,” he said. “One way of differentiating content and adding an aspiration value to the radio channels is engaging celeb RJs. We started with Pallavi Joshi, Vrajesh Hirjee then Raju Shrivastav and Karishma Kapoor. They do help to reach out to mass audiences. We cannot attribute the entire success of the shows to celeb RJs but they have delivered a special quotient to the radio slots they anchored.”

AbrAr ZArgAr

POLIO DROPS BEING ADMINISTERED

AT RAMZAAN HOSPITAL GOGJIBAGH

006