Mail

Honouring public men

Sir,

It refers to the interesting remarks by press reporters to Dr. Chitranjan Ranawat about a possible 'Bharat Ratna' on his repeat performance for second knee-surgery of the Indian Prime Minister. The joke reflects a well-timed tone on misuse of national honours for usual king-like awards to medical practitioners of modern national kings namely President and Prime Minister! It is quite usual that 'Padma' awards are generally given only to known faces, ignoring many deserving ones who miss these because their faces are not familiar to members of the committee deciding these prestigious national honours. It should be duty of the Government to trace common citizens who have been instrumental for taking up causes of national and public interest in an effective manner. For instance, Department of Administrative Reforms (Government of India) launched an 'Award Scheme for Suggestions' in the year 1999 to encourage people to send suggestions for improvement and savings in various gosvernment departments. But the scheme was abandoned in between without even awarding the implemented suggestions. Union Government owes a duty towards most active participants of the said scheme to honour with 'Padma' awards.

There is unhealthy practice to upgrade 'Padma' honours to persons already honoured with these awards. To honour at least some extra deserving persons in a country of more than a billion, duplication of 'Padma' awards must be avoided by having only 'Padma' award say 'Padmashree' abolishing 'Padmabhushan' and 'Padmavibhushan'. System will dignify the real value of 'Padmashree' which presently is undervalued in presence of 'Padmabhushan' and 'Padmavibushan'.

Highest honour of 'Bharat Ratna' may be given every year on Republic Day to just one or two living legends avoiding controversial practice of giving national honours posthumously. In rare cases. Posthumous honours may be awarded within one year of death of the awardee. Since India has international awards for foreign dignitaries, national honours must be only for Indian nationals!

Yours etc...
Madhu Agrawal
1775 Kucha Lattushah
Dariba Delhi 110006.

Writing without fear

Sir,

After Arun Shourie, the only writer who has courage to write the truth without any fear is our Dr. Jatinder Singh. We are fortunate to have at least one journalist in our State who does not write for publicity or any favour, but tries to bring the truth before public. In the present times of sycophancy and "Ji Mantriji" it needs tremendous courage to write truth (DE June 3 write up) especially when there are Kuldip Nayars alround who miss no opportunity to cash cheap publicity be that at the cost of religion or nation. We hope Dr. Jatinder Singh shall keep on writing on all subjects and that too free fair, and without fear.

Yours etc...
B L Kaul
23/1 Durga Nagar,
Jammu.

Tax deduction

Sir,

Tax Deduction Source (TDS) is a noble system for collection of Income Tax (IT) by widening the tax-net and minimising chances of 'adjustments' at time of filing IT returns. Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) should further widen scope of TDS and it should be applicable on proprietorship firms also. But to encourage savings and for convenience of retired persons, TDS must not be applicable on interest on bank deposits. TDS procedure should be simplified to have common forms and same rates. There should be uniform dates of depositing TDS collected and also of filing of single consolidated TDS return for all types of TDS. There may be a single consolidated form no 26 abolishing form nos like 24, 25, 27, 26A-B-BB-C-D-G-J-K etc. TDS collected may have to be deposited to the exchequer by 7th of coming month. 30th April may be the last date of filing a consolidated TDS return return instead of dates like 31st May or 30th June etc. Issue of TDS certificate should be only in one type of form say 16 abolishing others like 16A etc.

TDS penalties @ Rs 100 per day of default are unreasonable because big assesses find it advantageous to pay penalty @ Rs 100 per day of default, while it is excessively higher for smaller assesses. All IT penalties including TDS penalties may be say @ 3 percent per month of tax for default period. For reducing departmental work and to avoid penalty proceedings being time barred, penalties may be imposed in assessment orders.

While implementing new forthcoming IT Act, further simplification may be done by making calender year (January-December) as financial year abolishing British legacy of April-March financial year. It will be in tune with most countries of the world and also in accordance to expert LK Jha committee's recommendations!

Yours etc....
Subash Chandra Agrawal
1775 Kucha Lattushah
Dariba Delhi 110006
 
timer