Tribal Affairs and Hills Minister Vungzagin Valte chaired a meeting on the issues of ‘income tax deduction’ at his office chamber on Monday, and the importance of tax payment and challenges related to obtaining tax exemption certificate with only one year validity were deliberated.
The meeting was attended by ACS, Tribal Affairs and Hills, Letkhogin Haokip; ACS, link commissioner of GAD, Paulunthang Vaiphei; and officials from Income Tax and Tribal Affairs and Hills.
Understanding the difficulties related to obtaining the tax exemption certificate for the tribal people of the state, especially those residing in the far-flung places, the meeting decided to write a letter to the principal chief commissioners of Income Tax to prescribe a simplified procedure for claiming deduction of tax at known sources at lower or nil rate.
It was also decided that the DDOs of departments of state government and its PSUs shall intimate the exempted list of employees on the record of their service books to the Income Tax office, Imphal at the time of the assessment year.
“The employees who needed an exemption certificate under Section 197(1) for different purposes can still apply through the Income Tax department,” the minister stated.
It may be mentioned that all deserving scheduled tribe (ST) government employees residing in specified areas are exempted from paying income tax under section 10(26) of Income Tax Act, 1961. But it has been made mandatory to produce a certificate issued under Section 197 of the IT Act to avail the exemption which creates problems to the ST employees.
