West Bengal Govt. employees may get good news on D.A. this week

 The West Bengal government might take a concrete decision on the payment of dearness allowance (DA) arrears to the state government employees and make an announcement on this count before November 4, sources said.

Incidentally, November 4 is the deadline for Chief Secretary H.K. Dwivedi and Finance Secretary Manoj Pant to file affidavit in the Calcutta High Court, explaining why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against them for not honouring its judgement directing the state government to clear DA arrears by August 19.

According to sources, the state government is now left with three choices. First, the Chief Secretary and the Finance Secretary file affidavit as directed by the court on September 22. In that case, the legal discourse will be based on the arguments mentioned in the affidavit.

Second, the state government challenges the Calcutta High Court order on payment of DA arrears in the Supreme Court, which will lead to another round of legal battle. The Confederation of State Government Employees, which has been fighting a long legal battle on this issue, has already filed a caveat in the apex court on this count.

Third, the state government takes a decision and makes an announcement on arrear payment, and accordingly update the high court in this matter to avoid contempt of court proceedings.

Till now there has been no hint on the part of the state's legal department about approaching the Supreme Court, and hence the state government employees are hopeful of some positive announcement before November 4.

According to the General Secretary of the Confederation of State Government Employees, Malay Mukherjee, they are ready to fight the matter till the end at the apex court if the state government wishes to.

"We are confident of victory. But I think another legal battle will only add to the delay. Hence, it would be wise on the part of the state government to make an announcement on this count before November 4, and avoid contempt of court proceedings," Mukherjee said.

West Bengal Govt. takes legal path to postpone D.A. payment

 The state government has filed a review petition at the Calcutta High Court on Friday urging it to reconsider a division bench's order delivered on May 22 when the Bengal government was directed to clear DA dues to government employees in three months as per West Bengal Services (Revision of Pay and Allowance) Rules, 2009 (ROPA Rules, 2009). With the three months deadline getting over soon, the state government once again approached the division bench for reconsideration of its judgment. It is to be noted that the government will have to pay the due DA arrears from July 2009. The division bench of Justices Harish Tandon and Rabindranath Samant earlier dismissed the state government's appeal for consideration for the payment of DA.

It may be mentioned that West Bengal employees are currently getting 3% D.A while their counterparts in Central and many other state Govt.s are on receipt of 34% D.A.

Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (2016=100) – June, 2022

 The All-India CPI-IW for June, 2022 increased by 0.2 points and stood at 129.2 (one hundred twenty nine point two). On 1-month percentage change, it increased by 0.16 per cent with respect to previous month compared to an increase of 0.91 per cent recorded between corresponding months a year ago.

IBA released Dearness Relief payable to Bank Pensioners from August 2022 to January 2023

 Click here to view IBA circular

Uttar Pradesh hiked D.A./D.R by 3%

 The government of Yogi Adityanath has given a gift to the state employees of Uttar Pradesh. The Yogi government has increased the high cost allowance for state employees by 3%. The government has decided to increase the rate of High Cost Allowance and Relief from 31% to 34% effective from January 1, 2022. More than 27 lakh employees will benefit. There are 16 lakh government employees, teachers at UP while 11.52 lakh are retirees.

After this Yogi government announcement, the Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) for UP government employees and retirees has been increased effective January 1, 2022, so everyone will also receive arrears. According to the order, the arrears for a total of six months from January to June will also arrive in August with the July salary and pension increase. The UP Minister of Finance had sent a dossier to CM Yogi Adityanath for approval to pay DA and DR to employees and retirees at an increased rate.

Before the Yogi government, the central government had also decided in March to give DA and DR to its employees and pensioners at the rate of 34% instead of 31 from January 1, 2022. Now, after the decision of the UP government, more of 27 lakh state employees received great relief. It is said that on payment of DA and DR to government employees at an increased rate of 3%, an additional burden of Rs 220 crore will come on Yogi government every month.

Probable D.A. / D.R. for central employees/pensioners from 01st July 2022

 Different news in social media and news portals are spreading rumor of D.A. increase @5%, even 6% from 01.07.2022.

As we know that D.A. is calculated on the basis of average AICPIN for the preceding 12 months, no such possibility of 5/6% increase in Dearness Allowance is there.  

In all probabilities, D.A./D.R will be increased by 4% from 1st July 2022. 

It will be confirmed with the release of AICPIN number which is to be released on the last working day of July.

As per the continuing rate of inflation it can be predicted that number will be in such range where D.A. is to be calculated at the rate of 4% only.

New Air Travel Instruction for Central Employees

Consequent to disinvestment of Air India, modalities of Air travel of Govt. employees changed completely. Now there is no compulsion of travelling in Air India only but certain guidelines have been prescribed which is to be followed.

1. Air tickets to be purchased only from any one of the three authorised travel agents such as M/s Balmer Lawrie & Company Ltd., M/S Ashok  Travels & Tours, IRCTC. 

Click here to view the full instruction.

To facilitate online air ticket booking for Central Govt. employees a dedicated portal has been launched by one of these agents,  M/s Balmer Lawrie & Company Ltd., where Govt employees can register themselves and purchase online Air Ticket which will be the best fare available as mandate by Govt. instructions.

Click her to purchase online ticket from M/s Balmer Lawrie & Company Ltd.,

AICPIN for the month of May 2022

 The All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers for the month of May 2022 is increased by 1.3 points and stood at 129.

Click to Download the Press Release 

Income Tax Return filing : clear your doubts

Income Tax Return filing : clear your doubts

 

Income Tax Department has launched a new portal for online filing of Income Tax Returns in 2021. After initial glitches, the system is running smoothly now.

Department has further made available a new transaction history of the assessee named “AIS”. In this section, the financial transaction data available to department regarding the particular assessee for a given financial year is brought before the assessee himself beforehand. The objective is to make the assessee aware of his transactions so that he does not miss any income to be reported in the return.

AIS consists of two parts – Taxpayer Information Summary and Annual Information Statement.

Taxpayer Information Summary is a summary statement of information regarding income , transaction in shares/mutual funds etc.

·       Annual Information Statement has two parts. Part A consists of General Information of the assessee like Name, Address, Fathers’ name etc. whereas Part B is full of information like

TDS/TCS Information

SFT Information

Payment of Taxes

Demand and Refund

Other Information

 

Before filing return of Income, it is always advisable to scrutinize the information available in AIS so that no income stays unreported in the return of income which may entail hefty penalty.

Kindly remember while logging in into Income Tax portal, after putting PAN as User Id , do Click on the checkbox of “Please confirm your secure access message” and put password.

Most of the data in the return form is pre filled. Do check the data and edit if necessary and confirm it only after verifying the accuracy.

Most importantly, check the TDS/TCS data available in the pre filled portion of the return and Part B of AIS. All data regarding TDS/TCS may not be available there. For checking the accurate TDS/TCS data you need to view 26AS form. Previously it was available in a hyperlink available from the tax filing portal but now it is not there. You have to get yourself registered in TRACES portal to view 26AS.

Click here to register in TRACESPortal.

Download form 26AS and edit the TDS information available in the return and proceed.

Click here to file your return online

 

 

Odisha announces 3% D.A./D.R. for Govt employees

Odisha Govt. announced 3% D.A. /D.R for state employyes and pensioners with effect from 01/07/2021 and issued order in this effect.

Click here for D.A. order

Click here for D.R. order

Fake news of freezing of D.A./D.R for central employees on circulation

 A fake order of Ministry of Finance, GOI is in circulation for the last few hours. Th esummary of the message is as follows :

"...Dearness Allowance payable to Central Govt. employees and Dearness Relief payable to Central Govt. pensioners, payable at current rates are to be kept in abeyance so as to deal with any unprecedented situation...."

(Copy of the circulation, mainly on whatsapp is not being provided here to avaoid any such confusion.)

Paycommisionupdate inquired about this and did not find any such circular in any official website, nr in any Finmin portal.

The circulation is a fake news and viewers are asked not to be confused.