Says India wants peace, but Pakistan must take initiative to stop infiltration

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 25

Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat on Friday hinted at extending the unilateral ceasefire in the Kashmir valley.“We have suspended the operation which we call NICO (non-initiation of combat operations) so that the ‘awaam’ (people) realises how it feels when peace is in the air. In the current atmosphere of peace and tranquillity, people are happy and if such atmosphere of peace continues, I can say that we can consider extending NICO,” General Rawat told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Pahalgam.He, however, asserted that if militant activities continued, they will have to rethink on the ceasefire. “If terrorists carry out their actions then we may have to rethink on the ceasefire or suspension of NICO,” he said.The Central government had announced cessation of anti-militancy operations across Kashmir during the holy month of Ramzan that began on May 17. While there have been some militant-initiated actions during the past nine days, the situation has been relatively calm, especially in south Kashmir.General Rawat, who arrived on a two-day visit to the state on Thursday, reviewed the security situation in the strife-torn Valley on Thursday amid the ongoing cessation of anti-militancy operations by the forces.On the ceasefire violations along the border, the Army Chief said Pakistan must take the initiative to stop infiltration of terrorists into India.“As you know Pakistan is continuing violating the ceasefire and when there is loss of life and damage to property of the people, we have to respond because we can’t remain silent. When they violate the ceasefire, we will respond,” the Army Chief said. “If Pakistan wants peace and tranquillity, we would like that they should take the initiative. The initiative should be such that the terrorists who infiltrate to vitiate the atmosphere should be stopped. The ceasefire violation takes places to facilitate infiltration.”He said India wanted that peace should be maintained on the borders. “But for that it is necessary that training camps should be closed and weapon smuggling should be stopped. If that happens, peace will return to the border and ceasefire will be maintained,” General Rawat said.

In the wake of the Income Tax Department’s recent cautionary advisory to salaried taxpayers, you need to keep certain things in mind to avoid being labelled a tax evader. Here they go.

You must be aware that the Income Tax Department has recently issued a cautionary advisory to the salaried taxpayers that those suppressing information while filing their income tax returns (ITRs) will be penalised, followed by prosecution as well. One of the reasons being that many taxpayers increase their deductions or exemptions or reduce their taxable income while filing their ITRs in order to reduce their tax liability. However, hiding one’s income details from the I-T Department is not possible now-a-days. Therefore, if you want to avoid being labelled an income tax evader by taxmen, you are required to do certain things and also need to file your tax returns carefully from now on. Here are a few points you should keep in mind:

1. Avoid claiming false deductions

It has been observed that in order to increase the amount of refund, some people claim bogus deductions under various sections of Chapter VI-A. “However, one should not reduce one’s income in the ITR by availing false deductions. If the I-T Department finds any discrepancy in your ITR, then it will scrutinize your case in detail and levy penalties upon you, followed by prosecution as per the provisions of the law,” says CA Abhishek Soni, Founder, tax2win.in.

2. Avoid inflating interest on home loan repayment

In ITRs, many people claim more amount of interest on home loans than mentioned in their interest certificate. In that case, the tax department may ask you to submit relevant proofs. If it finds the proofs to be insufficient, then it can take penal action against you. Therefore, do not try to inflate the claim of interest paid on home loan.

3. Avoid mistake in case of multiple Form 16s

If you have changed your job/jobs during the year, you will need to refer to multiple Form 16s along with your Form 26AS while filing your income tax return. “The tax department has all the data related to salary income and TDS deducted on it. So, you must combine your income from all the employers and calculate the amount of tax. Then subtract the TDS, which has already been deducted, from the total tax. Resultantly, you will get to know if you need to pay more tax,” says Soni.

4. Avoid claiming false tax exemptions

Several people claim false tax exemptions under Section 10 like HRA, LTA, medical reimbursement, etc. These can be easily identified by comparing data in the tax return with Form 16, Form 16A and Form 26AS. Also, the new ITR forms require you to provide the break-up of your salary, all taxable allowances and perquisites etc. Therefore, try to save tax only by availing valid tax benefits.

5. Avoid fake claims of capital gains

If you have any income or loss from trading of Shares or Future and Options, then do not forget to include it in your ITR. “Since all your financial accounts are linked to Aadhaar and PAN, so the I-T Department can easily compare the gains made by you in trading in equity or MFs with that reported in your return and any under reporting or miss-reporting can lead you in trouble,” informs Soni.

6. Avoid exclusion of rent on housing property

If a person owns more than one house, then he should calculate and add the notional rent/ actual rent of the deemed let out property in his taxable income and pay due taxes on it. “Many taxpayers are either not aware of this clause or ignore it to save taxes. Now, since all the properties are linked to your PAN and Aadhaar, the I-T Department can easily verify them. In case it is found that you have under-reported your income, then it can result into penal action,” says CA Vertika Kedia, Co-Founder, Tax2win.in.

7. Avoid exclusion of agriculture income

Very few taxpayers know that agricultural income, which is not subject to income tax, is also added to your taxable income to decide the tax rate applicable on your total income. If you do not account for it, then the taxmen may compare your agricultural income with land revenue records.

8. Avoid exclusion of interest income

Depositing your hard-earned money in banks either in savings account or FDs always seems a secure and easy option. However, many taxpayers tend to forget to include the interest income earned from those fixed deposits and savings bank account in their ITRs. Avoidance of it may land you into trouble, and the I-T Department may issue notices in such regard.

To Conclude…

Keeping all the above-mentioned points in view, it is clear that under-reporting or misreporting your income to the I-T Department or adopting any malpractice to evade tax may cost you dearly. Therefore, be vigilant while filing your I-T returns to avoid being labelled a tax evader.

A Scorpio SUV stopped near Capt Vikas’s family and five people inside the car started passing lewd comments at the women.

NEW DELHI: An Indian Army Captain along with his family was brutally beaten by five miscreants in Delhi’s posh locality, Dwarka on May 13.

The Captain is deployed in Special Forces, had gone to Dwarka City Centre mall to have dinner with his wife, sister, brother-in-law and their children.

“We came out of the mall after the dinner around midnight. As our vehicle was parked some distance away from the gate of the mall, I asked my wife, sister and children to stay while my brother-in-law and I went to get the car,” Capt Vikas Yadav said in a complaint.

A Scorpio SUV stopped near them and five people inside the car started passing lewd comments at the women.

When confronted, two of them stepped down and started misbehaving with them.

“My brother-in-law and I reached the spot immediately with our car to rescue them. The goons started punching me. One of them smashed liquor bottle on my head that led to bleeding. They also threatened of dire consequences and raping our women folk,” Capt Yadav said.

The miscreants were managed to flee the venue.

However, one of them didn’t get able to board the vehicle, the Army officer chased him and nabbed him after running behind him for 2km.

Later, he was identified as Mohamad Irshad Ali Hashmi, resident of the same locality.

“They were arrested on May 15 and booked under various IPC sections. Additional sections will also be slapped once the final Medico Legal Certificate (MLC) report come. The SUV has also been seized,” said DCP Shibesh Singh, Dwarka.

Smita Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 25

A suspected Pakistan agent arrested in Uttarakhand’s Pitthoragarh is believed to have been working with the Indian Defence Attaché at the Indian High Commission, The Tribune has learnt.

The suspected spy, Ramesh Singh Kanyal, landed the job through his brother, reportedly an Indian army jawan. A senior Indian official allegedly hired him to work as a domestic help in 2015, when he was posted to the defence attaché in Islamabad.

Uttar Pradesh Assistant Director General (Law and Order) Anand Kumar said on Friday that J&K Military Intelligence Unit, Uttarakhand Police and Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested Singh from his house in Pitthoragarh in a joint operation on Wednesday.

“Ramesh is not very educated, but he used to go through the laptop, diaries and other files to pass on information to ISI agents. He had a debt of around Rs 9 lakh from banks and private people that he paid back after coming back to India in 2017,” Kumar said.

Ramesh, who returned to Indian in 2017, runs a Public Distribution System shop in Didihat at Bilmara village near the Nepal border. He was allegedly paid $1,300 for spying for Inter-Services Intelligence.

He would also pass on confidential information about army installations in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand to his Pakistani handlers.

“We have brought him on a transit remand to Lucknow and are questioning him about how he paid his loans back, and whether the ISI paid him more money, “ Kumar said.

Investigators are believed to have been keeping an eye on Singh after Aftab, another suspected spy arrested from Faizabad earlier this year, mentioned his name during questioning.
Investigators said they found a SIM card and a mobile phone of Pakistani make with Kanyal, and are now going through his call records.

The Pakistan High Commission in India has yet to respond to the developments.

The Kishanganga Hydroelectric Project is likely to be inaugurated by the PM today. The project was completed 30 years after its conception. Lessons need to be drawn from Pakistan’s obstructionist attitude despite India’s benevolence in sharing of Indus river waters.

Lt-Gen Pramod Grover (retd)

Widely accepted as one of the most sophisticated and comprehensive international water treaties, the Indus Waters Treaty stands out as the world’s most generous water-sharing arrangement by far, in terms of both the sharing ratio (80.52 per cent of the aggregate water flows in the Indus system reserved for Pakistan) and the total volume of basin waters for the downstream state. Even the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Report (2011) refers to this pact as “the world’s most successful water treaty”.The implementation of the provisions of the treaty, however, has not been without intractable divergences and consistent tension between the two parties. Despite India’s generosity in the sharing of the Indus river waters, Pakistan has consistently adopted an obstructionist tactics’ strategy since 1977, raising issues regarding run-of-river projects under construction on the western rivers by India. A case in point is the Kishanganga Hydroelectric Project which is all set to be dedicated to the nation nearly three decades after its conception.The Kishanganga Hydroelectric Project in Kashmir’s Gurez Valley is a run-of-the-river project that includes a 37-metre high concrete rock fill dam across the Kishanganga river, located just before it flows across the Line of Control (LoC) into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. It will divert the water to an underground powerhouse through a 23.25-km tunnel and will generate 1,713 million units of power per annum, of which the state of Jammu and Kashmir will be provided 12 per cent.In the early nineties, India had informed Pakistan of its intentions to construct the Kishanganga Hydroelectric Project. After a gap of almost three decades, this 330-MW power project worth Rs 5,750 crore has been commissioned in stages during March-April this year and is likely to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the third week of May.So, what are the reasons for such an unprecedented delay to a relatively small hydroelectric project?The prime reasons for this have been Pakistan’s consistent efforts to raise objections to the execution of this project, each time requiring India to clarify its position, a long-drawn process, leading every time to further validation of India’s stand. The objections have been rather arbitrary, belying the delay tactics approach of Pakistan for any development in the area. The main objections have been that inter-tributary diversions were barred as per the provisions of the Indus Water Treaty and that existing Pakistani uses must be protected as execution of this project  would deprive Pakistan of 27 per cent of the river’s natural flows, thereby adversely affecting 1,33,000 ha of irrigated area in the Neelum valley. Pakistan also raised objections relating to certain design features.In response, India clarifying its position informed Pakistan that the Kishanganga project on the LoC was a run-of-the-river scheme. The Indus Water Treaty categorically permitted inter-tributary diversion as per Article III (2) and Para 15 (iii) of Annexure D. The treaty stipulated that “where a plant is located on a tributary of the Jhelum of which Pakistan has an agricultural use or hydro-electric use, the water released below the plant may be delivered, if necessary, into another tributary but only to the extent that the then existing agricultural use or hydro-electric use by Pakistan on the former tributary would not be adversely affected”, a clause respected and adhered to by India.Further, in 2010, Pakistan took the matter to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, which stayed the project for three years. But in 2013, the court ruled that the Kishanganga was “a run-of-the-river plant within the meaning of the Indus Waters Treaty and that India may accordingly divert water from the Kishanganga (Neelum River) for power generation.” The court, however, also ruled that India was under an obligation to “construct and operate” the Kishanganga dam in such a way that it “maintains a minimum flow of water in the Kishanganga/Neelum River.” The minimum flow was fixed at 9 cumecs (318 cusecs). India, duly adhering to the observation, voluntarily declared that it was lowering the height of the dam from the planned 98 m to 37m and resumed construction in full swing.In August 2016, concerned about the performance of their under-construction Neelum-Jhelum hydro station (900 MW) at Nowshera, Pakistan approached the World Bank, the facilitator of the treaty, to prove that India was violating the treaty as well as the court’s verdict. Pakistan requested the World Bank to appoint a court of arbitration to review the design of the Kishanganga project.India rejected the suggestion on the grounds that Pakistan’s objections were technical in nature and that the matter should be decided by a neutral expert. Pakistan disagreed, arguing that a decision by a technical expert was non-binding and India would be under no obligation to implement the expert’s recommendation. This issue continues to be the focus of several interactions lately under the aegis of the World Bank but no decision has been arrived at since Pakistan’s representation lacks merit and substance. It is thus quite apparent that Pakistan has, once again, lost one more diplomatic battle.However, for India, there is a need to draw a lesson. It is apparent that a think tank in Pakistan has been consistently resisting the construction of any hydropower project on the western rivers even though all projects by India are the run-of-the-river projects and in tune with the treaty stipulations. India’s stance has, in the past, been accepted by the Neutral Expert in case of Baglihar and the Court of Arbitration in case of Kishanganga.Taking the benefit of the lessons learnt, there is need to expedite construction/completion of various projects in the pipeline on priority and draw full benefits entitled under the provisions of the treaty for economic growth.

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Grievously injured ex serviceman dies, 17 accused arrested

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Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 13

Noting that Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI has been active in Punjab and providing all kinds of logistic and financial support, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) in its report to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has said that pro-Khalistan groups are hiring local criminals to carry out terror activities and revive militancy in the state.Suggesting that local police officers, district magistrates and senior IAS and IPS officers should be alerted about the covert activities of pro-Khalistani groups, the IB in its report, according to a senior MHA official, has cautioned the state government that some local gangsters “are in constant touch with pro-Khalistan groups” which have a presence in many Western countries.It is also learnt that in the report, the IB has asked the MHA to issue directions to the state government to make a list of local criminals and keep a watch on them.A senior MHA official said, “Intelligence inputs have revealed that a pro-Khalistan group from the UK has started a campaign through social media urging the people of Punjab to join the Khalistan struggle. They are hiring local gangsters to neutralise people and leaders opposing the Khalistan struggle.”These groups are allegedly sending money to the criminals via hawala to carry out terror activities. In this exercise, they are getting proactive support from Pakistan’s ISI, the IB has claimed in its report.Sources in the MHA said the report mentions that such groups, which are operating from European countries, are luring criminals and anti-social elements by offering education and job opportunities to their family members abroad. Intelligence input suggests that around 100 people related to these local criminals have moved out of India to greener pastures in Europe.The NIA, which is probing the murder case of local RSS leader Ravinder Gosain, had last week filed a chargesheet accusing 15 who belonged to the Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF). In the chargesheet, the agency had also said the killing of the RSS leader was a transnational conspiracy hatched by the KLF’s senior leadership.Alert sounded

• The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has cautioned the state government that some local gangsters “are in constant touch with pro-Khalistan groups” which have a presence in many Western countries
• It has also asked the MHA to direct the state to make a list of local criminals and gangsters and keep a watch on them

Beijing, May 2

The militaries of India and China have reportedly agreed on the long-pending proposal to set up a hotline between their headquarters after the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, the official Chinese media said on Wednesday.Modi met Xi last week in an unprecedented two-day ‘heart-to-heart’ summit to “solidify” the India-China relationship.“Leaders of the two nations have reportedly agreed to set up a hotline between their respective military headquarters,” state-run Global Times daily reported on Wednesday.The reported move comes after Modi and Xi agreed to issue “strategic guidance to their respective militaries to strengthen communication in order to build trust and mutual understanding and enhance predictability and effectiveness in the management of border affairs.”“The two leaders further directed their militaries to earnestly implement various confidence-building measures (CBMs) agreed upon between the two sides, including the principle of mutual and equal security, and strengthen existing institutional arrangements and information-sharing mechanisms to prevent incidents in border regions,” the Ministry of External Affairs had said in a press release.The hotline was regarded as a major CBM as it would enable both the headquarters to intensify communication to avert tensions between border patrol in the 3488-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) and to avert standoffs like Doklam.Troops of India and China were locked in the 73-day standoff in Doklam since June 16 last year after the Indian side stopped the construction of a road by the Chinese Army in the disputed area. Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face-off had ended on August 28.The hotline was under discussion for long but reportedly bogged down over procedures like at what level it should be established in the headquarters. The Chinese military, too, underwent major reforms initiated by Xi under which its command structures have undergone major changes.For instance, India and Pakistan have hotline facilities between Director Generals of Military Operations (DGMOs). But in the context of China, the Chinese military has to identify a designated official to operate such a facility.It was mooted by the 2013 Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) between India and China, but had not materialised so far.The BDCA was aimed to establish peace along the LAC.Chinese military experts said the hotline would build trust between the two militaries.Military trust between China and India is crucial to bilateral relations and demands patience and sincerity from both sides, experts were quoted as saying by the daily.“The informal summit in Wuhan is a good start to alleviating stress between the two countries, which is the basis for future communication and trust-building,” Zhao Gancheng, director of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies’ Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies, told the daily.“Military trust and military cooperation should be the direction that both sides make efforts to achieve, though it will take some time,” Zhao said. The two militaries were expected to resume “hand-in-hand” annual exercises which were disrupted last year due to the Doklam standoff.“It is also important to implement the agreement on border issues that have been recognised by both countries,” Zhao noted.The armies of India and China on Tuesday held a Border Personnel Meeting in Chusul, Ladakh, during which both sides resolved to maintain peace and tranquillity along the LAC, besides agreeing to work on additional CBM.The BPM was the first such meeting after the informal summit between Xi and Modi last week. PTI