Saturday, 10 November 2012
Aadhaar based Direct Cash Transfers - Rollout to begin from 1 January 2013 in 51 districts, Half the country to be covered by 1.4.2013
A
meeting of the Executive Committee on Direct Cash Transfers was held today by
the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister along with the Cabinet Secretary.
The meeting was attended by the Secretaries and representatives of
the Departments of Financial Services, UIDAI (Aadhaar), IT, Planning
Commission, Expenditure, Posts, Rural Development, Social Justice
& Empowerment, Tribal Affairs, Minority Affairs, Higher Education, School
Education, Health & Family Welfare, Women & Child Development, Labour
& Employment, Petroleum & Natural Gas, Fertilizers, and Food &
Public Distribution.
The
Prime Minister had recently constituted a National Committee on Direct Cash
Transfers under his chairmanship and an Executive Committee on Direct Cash
Transfers to give a thrust to roll out a cash transfer programme across the
country, leveraging the Aadhaar platform.
The
purpose of the meeting today was to move forward and operationalise Direct Cash
Transfers for which many steps need to be taken. The necessary steps include
(i) identification of areas where Direct Cash Transfers can be introduced, (ii)
establishing mechanisms for preparing rollout plans for these areas, (iii)
ensuring rapid rollout of Aadhaar to achieve better coverage (at least 80%),
(iv) ensuring universal access to banking and financial inclusion and (v)
setting up mechanisms to enable cash transfers to actually take place. To
facilitate all this, there is a need to constitute other committees including a
Technology Committee, a Financial Inclusion Committee and Implementation
Committees within each Ministry so as to ensure coordination and quick
implementation.
The
agenda for the meeting was to:
i.
Explain to all committee members the rationale and purpose of
Direct Cash Transfers and the institutional architecture that has been put in
place for the rollout.
ii.
Finalise the constitution and composition of the Implementation
Committees.
iii. Identify
areas for introducing Direct Cash Transfers and make arrangements for
finalising roadmaps for rollout in each area, keeping in view the roadmap
already prepared for Direct Cash Transfers of LPG Subsidy.
Based
on the extensive discussions that took place and the issues raised by the
participants, the following decisions were taken in the meeting:
i. All
departments engaged in transferring benefits to individual beneficiaries will quickly
move to an electronic Direct Cash Transfer system, based on an Aadhaar Payment
Bridge/ Platform.
ii. They
will identify the schemes to move to this system and also prepare a roadmap
with timelines so that the rollout is smooth and fast. The roadmap for
each scheme will broadly have the following timelines:
a. 51
districts - from
1 January 2013
b. 18
states - from
1 April 2013
c. 16
states - from
1 April 2014 or
earlier.
iii. The
list of schemes, roadmaps, and timelines will be sent to the Planning
Commission and PMO by 20 November 2012
iv. UIDAI
will set up a dedicated cell of technical experts in UIDAI to
facilitate Aaadhaar enabled Direct Cash Transfers and help individual
Ministries.
v. Department
of Financial Services will go for universal Financial Inclusion through
individual Bank Accounts for all in line with the roadmap.
vi. UIDAI
will rollout Aadhaar speedily in line with the roadmap.
vii. Departments
will work towards digitising their databases quickly, particularly
at the state level with the help of state governments, DeITy and NIC to ensure
convergence.
The
Prime Minister will be holding the first meeting of the National Committee on
Direct Cash Transfers on 26 November 2012 where the roadmap and timelines will
be presented.
***Indo-Israel revelry on postal dept's new release
ALLAHABAD: Department of Posts
has set rolling celebration of Deepawali. While special arrangements
are being made for distribution of Deepawali greetings timely, a
twin-set of postage stamps depicting Deepawali have been issued by India
and Israel.
Director postal services Allahabad region Krishna Kumar Yadav said the stamps of Rs 5 denomination are being issued on the occasion of completion of 20 years diplomatic relations between India and Israel.
The festival of lights is celebrated as Deepawali in India and as 'Hanuka' in Israel.
'Deepawali' is the festival of lights and celebrated on the eve of 'Amavasya' in the Hindu month of Kartik in India.
The Hanuka is also celebrated as festival of lights in Israel. This is Jewish holiday festival of eight days started before 2{+n}{+d} century BC at the time of the Maccabean Revolt in Jerusalem at the time of re-dedication of holy temple in the form of memorials.
The candles are lit on windows and doors in a traditional way and this is also lit on nine-branched Menorah and also as Hanuka special lamps. The postal stamps are available in Philately Bureau, Allahabad head post office and Allahabad Kutchery head post office too.
Director postal services Allahabad region Krishna Kumar Yadav said the stamps of Rs 5 denomination are being issued on the occasion of completion of 20 years diplomatic relations between India and Israel.
The festival of lights is celebrated as Deepawali in India and as 'Hanuka' in Israel.
'Deepawali' is the festival of lights and celebrated on the eve of 'Amavasya' in the Hindu month of Kartik in India.
The Hanuka is also celebrated as festival of lights in Israel. This is Jewish holiday festival of eight days started before 2{+n}{+d} century BC at the time of the Maccabean Revolt in Jerusalem at the time of re-dedication of holy temple in the form of memorials.
The candles are lit on windows and doors in a traditional way and this is also lit on nine-branched Menorah and also as Hanuka special lamps. The postal stamps are available in Philately Bureau, Allahabad head post office and Allahabad Kutchery head post office too.
Source : The Times of India, 7 Nov., 2012
Medical Disability during the course of employment
Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) says the employee should be reinstated as the disability occurred during the course of employment
The Central Administrative Tribunal on Monday came to the rescue of a
BSNL junior technical officer (JTO) left partially paralysed by a
stroke, directing the principal chief engineer of BSNL, Tamil Nadu zone,
to allow him to report for duty in his post. The tribunal said the
telecom company would have to accept the decision of the medical board
and endorse the leave application of the JTO, M Manoharan.
The judicial member of the tribunal, G Shanthappa, said Manoharan had
established that he should be granted relief and quashed a September 23,
2011 order that refused to allow the petitioner to rejoin as JTO .
Manoharan suffered a massive stroke on June 1, 2002 that paralysed his
arms and legs. He was not able to speak and was under continuous
treatment for two years.
The respondents in the case included the Executive Engineer (civil), the
Superintending Engineer and sub-pision engineer (civil) of BSNL in
Ambattur. “A competent medical authority examined the applicant and
stated that the applicant suffered medical disability during the course
of employment. The stand taken by the respondents is rejected,” Justice
Shanthappa said.
Manoharan told the tribunal that he applied for leave after the stroke
and returned to duty on January 12, 2004. However, the chief engineer of
Chennai Telephones, KK Nagar, the fourth respondent, directed the
petitioner to appear before the medical board and obtain its opinion
whether his fitness allowed him to perform his duty as JTO.
As advised by the board, he proceeded on ‘commuted leave’ for 90 days
from September 13, 2010 and underwent various treatments including
physiotherapy. But his seniors did not permit him to rejoin duty. They
informed him that the regional medical board of Government General
Hospital had on December 10, 2010 declared that he was medically unfit to perform his duties as JTO.
“The respondents did not accept the medical report of the applicant and
did now allow him to rejoin duty,” said the tribunal’s administrative
member, R Satapathy. “The stand of the respondents is not correct. It is
illegal and violates of principles of natural justice.”
Citing the Supreme Court’s 2008 order in Bhagwan Dass vs Punjab
Electricity Board, Justice Shanthappa said Manoharan had submitted
documents to show that his medical disability had occurred while in
service, and this was confirmed by Government General Hospital, so the
respondents could not refuse to reinstate him.
Source: Times of India
THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT HRA AND TAX BENEFITS
House Rent Allowance (HRA), is an important component in our salary slips, with upto 30% of basic pay (+DP) in metros. HRA is the allowance given to meet the staff's expenses towards renting an accommodation. Though very simple in concept and calculation, the tax implications of the HRA, puzzles many a people. Here are 7 must knows, to help you utilise this component of your salary in a tax efficient manner.
1) Conditions you need to satisfy for a HRA exemption
Under
Section 10 of the Income Tax Act, certain exemptions are permissible on
the received HRA. To claim such exemptions one must satisfy the below
conditions.
The employee must not own the property in which he is residing.
Employees must be paying rent for the accommodation in which residing.
Such rent must be more than 10 per cent of his/her salary (see section 5).
if not, an exemption cannot be availed if there is no HRA component in the salary.
2) Calculating HRA for tax exemption
HRA
tax exemption is based on the HRA received, basic pay, actual rent paid
as well as if you stay in metro or non-metro. The amount exempted from
the tax calculations is the least of the following.
The actual rental allowance paid by the employer as part of the salary.
The actual rent paid, from which, 10% of the basic pay is deducted,
50% of the basic salary if residing in a metro or 40% if in a non-metro.
3) HRA benefits in case of rent paid to parents
If
you are residing in a house owned by your parents and you are paying
rent to them, technically, they are the landlords. You could, thus,
claim an exemption, provided they show the same transaction in their
income tax returns.
Rent
to husband/wife are not permissible, as a husband and wife relationship
is not considered commercial and are also are meant to stay together.
4) Proof to be submitted for HRA claims
If
the house rent paid is upto Rs. 3000 per month, then rent receipt is
not mandatory. Otherwise you will have to submit the rent receipt proofs
to claim the tax deduction. A one rupee revenue stamp affixed with the
signature of landlord receiving the rent, with other details of the
rented address, rent paid and name of the person who rents it, need to
be mentioned on the receipt.
5) Meaning of salary for HRA calculation
Salary for HRA purposes is as follows:
Basic salary (Basic Pay plus Dearness Pay)
Dearness Allowance
Commissions earned if any
This salary will not include arrears of earlier years, received during the previous year for which the claim is made.
6) You could claim HRA exemption as well as a home loan tax benefit at the same time
HRA
exemption could be availed even if you are claiming a home loan tax
benefit. For a home loan, tax benefits are available towards the
repayment of principal. So, as long as you meet the criteria for a home
loan deduction as well for a HRA exemption, you could go ahead and claim
both tax benefits. This could be possible, in cases where you may be
working in another city.
7) Period in which HRA exemption can be claimed
The
period in which the HRA is actually received from the employer, must
necessarily pertain to the period in which the employee actually pays
rent for his accommodation. In case HRA is received for a period in
which no rental accommodation is occupied by the employee, exemption
cannot be claimed.
Courtesy: http://postalinspectors.blogspot.in
DBAnalyzer for Sanchay Post Dated 08-11-2012
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