THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
The government’s decision to release the Seventh Pay Commission arrears on March 29, barely a couple of days before the close of financial year 2018-19 has come as bolt from the blue for aided school teachers in the State.
It may be recalled that the Seventh Pay Commission arrears from January to December 2016 of all government employees were to be deposited in the General Provident Fund (PF) as notified earlier.
However, with the arrears deposited at the fag end of the financial year, the teachers were caught unawares leaving them with virtually no time for any further tax planning on the additional liability.
It is learnt that the Education Department, prior to release of these arrears, had taken an undertaking from headmasters fixing responsibility for the TDS.
However, teachers feel that this was not fair as they were not even intimated about the funds having being credited into their PF accounts. As such, they felt that there was no time to recalculate their tax liability and make savings to offset the additional tax burden for the financial year 2018-19.
Speaking to The Goan, president of Goa Headmasters’ Association, Vithoba Desai, said that in December 2018, the Director of Education took an undertaking from all headmasters mentioning that arrears would be paid to teachers, but that it was the headmasters’ responsibility to see that tax was deducted for the same.
“As this undertaking was dated November, and they made us sign in December, we assumed that at least by January, or February, the money would be credited to the teachers. When this did not happen, a delegation went to meet the Director of Education to request him not to deposit the arrears at the end of the financial year, but wait till April. Further, the government did not even inform us when the arrears were paid. It is their duty to inform us,” said Desai.
Further, Desai said upon verification, Income Tax officials confirmed that tax on arrears had to be paid before April 30, and there was no way out.
Director of Education Nagraj Honnekeri told “The Goan” on Tuesday that arrears had to be put into the teachers’ accounts before the end of the financial year as the budget for the same had been allocated by the government for the financial year 2018-19. Further, he claimed that the money couldn’t be credited before as the government did not have funds.
An official from the Finance Department told “The Goan” that the provision for the Rs 210 crores required to pay the teachers arrears was made only in the supplementary budget, during the January budget session. The official also said that many school managements had not submitted the salary slips of the teachers to the Department on time, so the Department too couldn’t make the accounts earlier.
