New Delhi, February 1

Giving relief to the salaried class, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today proposed a standard deduction of Rs 40,000 in lieu of transport allowance and medical reimbursement entailing a revenue sacrifice of Rs 8,000 crore. The minister, however, did not propose any change in the tax slabs or rates for individual taxpayers.“In order to provide relief to salaried taxpayers, I propose to allow a standard deduction of Rs 40,000 in lieu of the present exemption in respect of transport allowance and reimbursement of miscellaneous medical expenses,” Jaitley said while presenting the Budget 2018-19 in Parliament today.The standard deduction, which is provided to salary earners, was discontinued from the assessment year 2006-07. However, it will provide little relief to salaried class as benefits under the proposed Rs 40,000 standard deduction will be neutralised to a large extent by inclusion of transport and medical allowances and 1 per cent hike in health and education cess.Already the individual tax payer was getting benefit of Rs 19,200 under transport allowance and Rs 15,000 crore under the medical allowance. Both these components add to the tax benefit of Rs 34,200 crore per annum.So, the effective tax gain is to the tune of Rs 5,800 per annum with the introduction of standard deduction.According to Parizad Sirwalla, partner (tax), KPMG, the withdrawal of annual tax free transport allowance and medical reimbursements has squared off the benefit on account of standard deduction.“An annual incremental net reduction of Rs 5,800 in income results into tax savings of Rs 302 and Rs 2,081,” Sirwalla said.At the same time, Sirwalla said, maximum tax rate overall has increased to 35.88 per cent from existing 35.53 per cent taking into account 1 per cent increase in education cess.“In order to provide relief to salaried taxpayers, I propose to allow a standard deduction of Rs 40,000 in lieu of the present exemption in respect of transport allowance and reimbursement of miscellaneous medical expenses,” Jaitley said in his Budget speech.This decision to allow standard deduction shall significantly benefit the pensioners also, who normally do not enjoy any allowance on account of transport and medical expenses, he said.Jaitley also noted that there is a general perception in society that individual business persons have better income as compared to salaried class. However, income tax data analysis suggests that major portion of personal income-tax collection comes from the salaried class, he observed.The total number of salaried employees and pensioners who will benefit from this decision is around 2.5 crores. — PTI

Experts opine

Reintroduction of standard deduction will help salaried employees get some parity with respect to businessmen and other self-employed professionals, who can claim a number of expenses such as rent, staff expenses and driver’s salary etc. as business expenditure and reduce tax burden.No change in income tax slabsThe Finance Minister did not propose any change in the tax slabs or rates for individual taxpayers. He said the government had made many positive changes in the personal income-tax rate applicable to individuals in the last three years. “Therefore, I do not propose to make any further change in the structure of the income tax rates,” he said.Investment limit up in vaya yojanaIt is proposed to extend the Pradhanmantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY) scheme till March 2020. It has also proposed to increase the current investment limit to Rs 15 lakh from the existing limit of Rs 7.5 lakh per senior citizen.  PMVVY was launched on May 4, 2017, and was initially meant to be available for one year from the launch.Team-based scrutiny of I-T returnsIn order to bring in greater transparency and accountability, the Budget proposed to introduce team-based assessment to determine tax payable or refunds to be issued to an assessee from April 1. An e-assessment of tax returns was introduced on pilot basis in 2017 and extended to 102 cities later.No bills required to claim deduction

• Salaried taxpayers and pensioners need not have to furnish any bills or documents to claim the standard deduction of Rs 40,000, according to CBDT chief Sushil Chandra
• Till now, this category of taxpayers had to furnish medical bills and an undertaking for conveyance expenses to get benefit of Rs 19,200 under transport allowance and Rs 15,000 crore under the medical allowance
• Chandra said the new measure will benefit all salaried employees, without the hassle of filing supporting documents or bills. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is the policy-making body of the Income Tax Department

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Justice SS Sodhi (retd) presents a memento to Justice Surya Kant of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, at the Army Institute of Law in Mohali on Saturday. Tribune Photo: Manoj Mahajan

Tribune News Service

Mohali, February 10

Justice Surya Kant of the Punjab and Haryana High Court inaugurated the AIL–Sarin National Rounds of the 9th Leiden-Sarin International Air Law Moot Court Competition at the Army Institute of Law, here today.In his address, Justice Surya Kant appreciated the efforts of the Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation and Leiden University in organising the moot court competition. He added that such platform helped students to have a profound understanding of law.He said the legal profession was one of the most honourable professions and participation in the moot court competition would help students become better advocates. “My advice to students would be to avoid repetition, cull out cold facts and then arrange them in a logical manner,” he said.As many as 18 teams from the top law schools of the country participated in the national finals. It was judged by 30 judges, including Justice AG Masih, Justice RN Raina, Justice GS Sandhawalia, Justice BS Walia, Justice Amit Rawal, Justice Deepak Sibal and Justice Sudhir Mittal.Former Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, Justice SS Sodhi (retd), who is also the president of the Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation, said this moot court competition was one of its kinds in the world, and was a result of collaboration between the Sarin Foundation and Leiden University, Netherlands. “Mooting is one of the most important components of training for a law student,” he added.The three teams selected in the India round are National Law University, Jodhpur; Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala, and Army Institute of Law, Mohali.The selected teams would compete in Seoul with teams from 20 countries, including US, China, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Poland, Singapore, Greece and France.Nitin Sarin, the moot coordinator, stated that this field of law was pertinent in the Indian context because of the booming aviation market which is slated to be the largest in the world by 2030.Nitin Sarin informed that the first eight editions of this international competition were held round the world, beginning with New Delhi in 2010, Dubai 2011, Istanbul 2012, Abu Dhabi in 2013, Bucharest Romania in 2014; Beijing, China in 2015; Jakarta, Indonesia in 2016; and Malta in April 2017.Two students of the Army Institute of Law received the first Sarin Foundation Best Mooters Award during the inauguration of the 9th Leiden Sarin International Air Law Moot Court Competition.Justice Surya Kant gave away the awards comprising of Rs 25,000 each to Aafreen Choudhary and Adhiraj Bhandari.ML Sarin, secretary general of the Sarin Memorial Legal Aid Foundation, announced the formation of a corpus of Rs 5 lakh, the interest of which will be used to felicitate the best mooter from the Army Institute of Law, Mohali, annually.

Will compete with teams from 20 countries The three teams selected in the India round are National Law University, Jodhpur; Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala, and Army Institute of Law, Mohali. The selected teams would compete in Seoul with teams from 20 countries, including US, China, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Poland, Singapore, Greece and France.

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Home Minister Rajnath Singh. File photo

New Delhi, February 5Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday condemned the cross-border firing by Pakistan in which four Indian soldiers, including a Captain, were killed, saying he has full faith in the valour of the Indian Army and they shall “give proper reply” to the neighbour.”Have full faith in the valour of our soldiers, and they shall give proper reply,” Rajnath Singh told reporters.

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Earlier, Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Ahir also condemned Sunday’s ceasefire violation in Jammu and Kahsmir’s Rajouri and Poonch districts saying that it shall “cost Pakistan dearly”.”Pakistan has been violating ceasefire along the LoC. And this year the number of ceasefire violations are high,” Ahir said.”Yesterday (Sunday) also, they again violated ceasefire. We will not forgive Pakistan’s actions,” the Minister said.”The ceasefire violations would prove to be Pakistan’s foolishness and will cost them dearly,” he added.Union Minister for MSME, Giriraj Singh also slammed Pakistan for the ceasefire violations and said, “Have faith in the Indian Army. When the right time comes they shall give a proper reply to them.” Referring to the 2016 surgical strikes, the Minister said, “When the Army carried out surgical strikes it didn’t tell the media about it. Similarly, they shall act accordingly at the right time.” He said India has been following international laws.”There is a Hindi saying in Bihar ‘latkhor’ (addicted to being beaten), and similarly Pakistan is ‘latkhor’ and thus proper reply would be given to them,” he added.The Minister’s remarks came in the wake of the increased cross border firing in the Kashmir Valley.On Sunday, four Indian soldiers were killed and four others were injured in firing in Rajouri and Poonch districts.The killed soldiers included Captain Kapil Kundu, who would have celebrated his 23rd birthday on February 10. Hailing from Haryana’s Gurugram, he is survived by his mother Sunita.The others were Riflemen Ramavatar, 27, from Baraka village in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior, besides Subham Singh, 23, from Kathua and Havilder Roshan Lal, 43, from Samba in Jammu and Kashmir.

IANS

Usually the Budget is an annual financial exercise with a little tinge of political messaging. The ritual this year was different. On Thursday, in Parliament, FM Jaitley read out a whole catalogue of schemes, while also referring to revenue and expenditure details that would affect over 1.3 billion Indians. Captivating announcements were made with catchy slogans — “ease of living”, “minimum government and maximum governance”, “premium on honesty”,  “blackboard to digital board” and “the new India” — unmindful of the ground realities. Even promises have been made like fixing MSPs at a minimum “one and half times” of the farmer’s input cost and the universal health insurance that would allow the poor to avail quality healthcare.In exuberance, the government officials termed “Ayushman Bharat Programme” as “Modicare” — and touted it as the largest public healthcare programme globally. But, the people living in the world’s largest democracy must anyway get the universal healthcare facilities as a matter of their constitutional right. Good that the Modi government has made a beginning in this direction with a big announcement, but with a tiny Rs 2,000 crore budget.Political announcements remain shallow promises unless they are tied up with funds and other resources. “Modicare”, the flagship scheme to provide Rs 5 lakh per family medical cover to over 50 crore poor, needs about Rs 11,000 crore annually. The Rs 2,000 crore tokenism reduces this Budget announcement to yet another promise ahead of the general election. “Modicare” is an enormous project for a cash-strapped country that has already tripped from the path of fiscal prudence. There are other knotty issues involved with its implementation. The most difficult one is the identification of the beneficiaries belonging to the vulnerable section. Misuse of mediclaim policies, particularly by private hospitals notorious for overcharging, is another problem that needs to be addressed effectively. Shortage of hospitals and doctors are other constraints. A well-intentioned government normally prefers to tie up all loose ends before announcing an important scheme. FM Jaitley must, however, take definitive steps for unveiling a properly-planned “Modicare” with adequate funds to avoid the repeat of “Obamacare”, a noble plan that invited notoriety because of the erroneous funding mechanism.

New Delhi, February 1

In its last full Budget before the 2019 General Election, the government today announced the “world’s largest” health insurance scheme for India’s 50 crore poor and fixed the minimum support price (MSP) at “1.5 times the input cost for all kharif crops this year”.Switching between Hindi and English, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha to repeated thumping of desks by treasury members led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi — focusing heavily on uplifting agriculture and rural sectors while paying little attention to the middle class.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)PM Modi later described it as a vehicle to build a “new India”. The Budget is “farmer friendly, common citizen friendly, business environment friendly” and will add to “ease of living and ease of doing business”, Modi said.With chaotic implementation of the GST and demonetisation causing distress, Jaitley announced massive spending on rural and urban infrastructure, as also lower tax rates for small and medium enterprises.While continuing the 10-15 per cent surcharge on the super-rich, he raised the health and education cess, levied on all taxable income, to 4 per cent from 3 per cent at present.The Opposition slammed the Budget, terming it “defeatist” and an election-minded “big jumla (rhetoric)”.The centrepiece of the Budget was the plan to provide universal healthcare, with a cover of up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, or about 50 crore beneficiaries.Jaitley committed an expenditure of Rs 1.38 lakh crore on health, education and social protection. But to fund these, he let go of the fiscal consolidation roadmap. As a result, fiscal deficit for the current fiscal will be 3.5 per cent of the GDP as against the previous target of 3.2 per cent, and 3.3 per cent in 2018-19, as opposed to 3 per cent set earlier.While the farm industry termed it a “roti-kapada and kisan” Budget, agriculture activists decried it as a “big betrayal” with the farming community saying the real concerns have been ignored. Captains of the industry, meanwhile, raised concerns over the fiscal math and resource mobilisation for populist measures. — PTIRoad, infra cess on fuel proposedThe Budget has proposed a levy of road and infrastructure cess of Rs 8 per litre on petrol and high-speed diesel oil while abolishing an additional duty of excise of Rs 6 on the same account but officials said it would have no impact on the fuel prices for the end user. The basic excise duty on unbranded petrol was slashed by Rs 2 from Rs 6.48 per litre and on branded petrol from Rs 7.66 per litre. IANS

Tracking black money

The Income Tax (IT) department possessed the technology to track suspicious transactions and black money and it would go after all those who were indulging in these crimes, the CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra said. PTI

The campaign for new Sikh war memorial was led by Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (right), Britain’s first turbaned Sikh MP. — @SeemaMalhotra1/Twitter

London, January 31

The UK government has agreed to support and fund a national memorial to honour the sacrifices and contribution of Sikh soldiers who fought for Britain and its allies during the two World Wars. More than 83,000 turbaned Sikh soldiers gave up their lives and more than 100,000 were injured during the wars.“We are indebted to all those servicemen who volunteered to serve and fought to defend the freedoms we enjoy today,” said UK communities secretary Sajid Javid yesterday as he announced government backing for the new memorial in London. “A Sikh war memorial in our nation’s capital will honour their sacrifice and ensure that this part of our shared history is never forgotten. So, I’m delighted to get behind this campaign and ensure its success,” he said.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The campaign for a new Sikh war memorial was led by Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, Britain’s first turbaned Sikh MP, who now has the support of the UK’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to help set up a Working Group to find a suitable location.Once an appropriate site has been identified and detailed plans agreed, the ministry has agreed to provide funding towards the project. “The part played by Sikh servicemen really stands out —  a contribution that is all the more remarkable when you consider that these brave men travelled thousands of miles to fight for a country that wasn’t their own,” said Javid.Over 27,000 people had signed an online petition by Dhesi, the Labour party MP for Slough who also submitted an Early Day Motion (EDM) in the House of Commons on the issue, which attracted cross-party support from over 260 MPs. According to official records, despite making up only 2 per cent of the Indian population when the First World War broke out, Sikhs accounted for more than 20 per cent of the Indian Army’s manpower.Sikh soldiers from Punjab and surrounding states saw action in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, most notably on the Western Front and at Gallipoli.Their contribution was essential to the war effort and of the 22 Military Crosses awarded to Indian soldiers, 14 went to Sikhs. — PTI

Unmatched valour

• More than 83,000 turbaned Sikh soldiers gave up their lives and more than 100,000 were injured during the wars
• Sikh soldiers from Punjab and surrounding states saw action in Europe, Africa and the Middle East
• Of the 22 Military Crosses awarded to Indian soldiers, 14 went to Sikhs

London to build memorial to Sikh soldiers

Giving relief to more than 150 women Army officers, ministry of defence led by Nirmala Sitharaman withdrew its appeal related to the issue of denial of promotions and benefits to Short Service and Women Commissioned Officers commissioned before 2006. The decision has also come as a major morale booster for the officers.

According to officials, the decision for withdrawal was approved last week by Sitharaman, and on Monday the appeal was finally withdrawn from the Supreme Court when the case came up for hearing, paving the way for grant of benefits to the officers.

Speaking to THE WEEK, Advocate Aishwarya Bhati, counsel appearing for women officers said that the matter stands resolved with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) withdrawing its appeal filed against such officers.

“A letter from the ministry of defence was taken on record and appeal was dismissed as withdrawn by the Supreme Court. Over 150 women officers serving in the army will be benefited from this order,” Bhati said.

Petitioners had stated that the applicants and other similarly situated officers are suffering irreparable damage as not only have they been denied seniority, promotion, pay parity and important assignments but their juniors are being promoted ahead of them, causing grave humiliation.

According to officials, on implementation of the recommendations of the Ajai Vikram Singh Committee, the Government in 2004 had accepted the promotions of Army officers at 2, 6 and 13 years of service to the ranks of Captain, Major and Lt Col respectively.

Though the promotions were made applicable to all commissioned officers, the benefit was later withheld from Short Service and Women Officers due to an internal interpretation by the Army’s Military Secretary’s (MS) Branch. The benefits were not extended despite a gazette notification by the Ministry of Defence extending the same to all affected officers though no such problem was faced in the Navy and the Air Force.  Later in 2006, when the Short Service Scheme was changed from 5+5+4 years system to 10+4 years system, the benefit was duly extended to those officers who opted for the new scheme resulting in a sharp disparity wherein senior officers were being retired as substantive Lieutenants and Captains while their juniors were reaching the rank of Lt Col.

The discrimination was set aside by the Armed Forces Tribunal but the decision was challenged in the Supreme Court by the Army and the MoD.

A Committee of Experts for reducing litigation constituted by the then defence minister Manohar Parrikar in 2015, which comprises former Adjutant General Lt Gen Mukesh Sabharwal, former Military Secretary Lt Gen Richard Khare, Punjab & Haryana High Court Lawyer Maj Navdeep Singh, former JAG Maj Gen T. Parshad and Kargil disabled veteran Maj D.P. Singh, had come down heavily upon for the establishment for filing an appeal by observing: “It is not understood as to why beneficial policies are viewed with a pessimistic eye so as to identify or even create prohibitory stipulations or even file appeals when the issue is suitably addressed by judicial intervention.”

Adding that the appeal seemed more like a ‘prestige issue’, the panel had asked for its withdrawal observing that the “anomaly was due to a self-created negative interpretation even when the scheme had been approved for all officers by the Cabinet”.

China has confirmed “resumption” of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through the Nathu La route, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh has said.He also noted that the Kailash Mansarovar yatra via Nathu La was not undertaken last year after the Chinese government cited “unfavourable conditions” to ensure the safe and smooth conduct of the yatra on this route.The yatra was stopped by China in the aftermath of the military face-off with India last year at Doklam.The standoff began on June 16 after the Indian troops intervened and stopped the Chinese Army from building a road in the area claimed by Bhutan as it posed a security risk to Chicken Neck, the narrow corridor connecting India with its northeastern states. Finally, the two armies “disengaged” on August 28.“This matter was raised by the government with the Chinese government. Subsequently, the Chinese government has confirmed resumption of the yatra on this route,” Singh said. — PTI