7th Pay Commission: New allowances to come under income tax

7th Pay Commission: New allowances to come under income tax

New Delhi: A Senior Finance Ministry official said income tax will be imposed on the New allowances of central government employees under 7th Pay Commission recommendations from financial year 2017- 18.
The Finance Bill 2017 proposed tax treatment on basic salary, bonus and allowances etc for both government and non-government salaried employees.

If all allowances excluding basic salary of central government employees are made tax free which will shows discrimination to others, he said.

The central government employees unions demanded many times that all new allowances under 7th Pay Commission recommendations should be income tax exempted.

The government implemented the new pay structure from January, 2016 for central government employees excluding allowances, the compensatory perks for all employees, which has been implemented from July 1, 2017.

The unions demanded for implementation of the allowances with retrospective effect from January 2016. However, there is a usual practice to pay the allowances from the date of implementation.

The officer also informed our reporter that the government had no plan since begaining to give allowances in arrears.

Keeping salaries and allowances hikes in mind, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley allocated Rs 1.02 lakh crore in the 2016-17 Union budget for paying the central government employees.

The delay in the implementation of allowances is chiefly because of the financial gains of the government, while financial condition of the government is very sound.

The delayed implementation of allowances have saved the government nearly Rs 40,000 crore.
The central government employees are deeply annoyed at little allowances hike without arrears.
The bone of contention between central government employees’unions and government, the House Rent Allowance (HRA), which unions demanded at the rate of 30 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 percent of basic pay with arrears.

While the government approved 7th Pay Commission recommendations for reduction in the HRA rates to 24 per cent for X, 16 per cent for Y and 8 per cent for Z category of cities, which came into effect from July 1, 2017 and no arrears were paid.

Accordingly, The huge resentment among the central government employees over little allowances hike without arrears and the central government employees unions are threatening to strike over their growing anger about little allowances hike without arrears.

TST