Latest Releases

    Refrences have been received as to whether the Transport Allowance granted to the Central Government employees on the recommendations of Fifth Central Pay Commission forms part of taxable salary for the purposes of deduction of tax at source.

    The matter has been considered by the Board. The transport allowance granted to the employees of the Central Government is to compensate them for the cost incurred on account of commuting between the place of residence and the place of duty. This allowance cannot be said to have been granted to meet expenses incurred wholly, necessarily and exclusively in the performance of the duties of an office or employment of profit. The said allowance is, therefore, not covered by the provisions of sections 10 (14) (i) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 read with rule 2bb (1) (c) of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. It is further clarified that any allowance, by whatever name called, expenditure incurred on commuting from residence to office or vice versa, will also not qualify for the benefit under section 10 (14) (i).

    Accordingly, the persons responsible for paying any amount of the above nature, should treat the same as part of taxable income and deduct tax at source at the appropriate rates under the relevant provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961. This may be brought to the notice of all concerned.
 
 

    Shri Krishan Kant, Vice-President of India has said that a through change in the perception and the attitude of the community towards leprosy is imperative. He said that much needs to be done to prepare the people to become alive to the need for treatment and then, for accepting cured persons in the community and giving them the dignity they deserve. Only through a massive, well-coordinated and sustained multi-pronged effort the goal of eliminating leprosy by the year 2000 ad, can be achieved, he said.

    Presenting the International Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation Awards to Mrs. Mathilde Grunner of Germany and Dr. S.D. Gokhale of India here today, Shri Krishan Kant said that our vision has to transcend mere form or sentimentality by not dealing with the superficial facets of the problem but to go to the roots of the causes of leprosy and eliminate it. He said India is one ot the countries which along with a few others in Asia and Africa accounts for 90 per cent of the world's leprosy patients and afficted persons.

    The International Gandhi Awards are given once in two years to persons who have made outstanding contribution to the field of leprosy. The Awards, established in 1986, consists of a sum of Rs. 2 lakhs, citation and a medallion on which the famous picture of Mahatma Gandhi treating Parchure Shastri is inscribed.