Telangana govt. should stop footing income tax of select VIPs: Forum for Good Governance

Forum for Good Governance urges Chief Secretary to end income tax payment for select government officials, citing inequality and burden.

Forum for Good Governance has written to Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari, requesting her to stop the practice of paying income tax on the salaries of select government functionaries, which it called “irregular and obnoxious”.

Under clause (4) of Section 3 of the Andhra Pradesh (Telangana) Payment of Salaries and Pension and Removal of Disqualifications Act, 1953, income tax is paid by the government for all functionaries equal to a Cabinet Minister’s rank.

The functionaries include the Chief Minister, all ministers of the State government, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Legislative Council, all advisors of cabinet rank, all chairpersons of corporations having a cabinet rank, chief whip and whips in Assembly and Council, leaders of opposition in Assembly and Council and parliamentary secretaries.

These positions already enjoy many facilities such as special allowances, sumptuary allowance, camp office allowance, security car allowance, house rent allowance and constituency allowance. Payment of income tax in addition is a burden on the State government, more so after salaries of all these posts have gone up by several times in the recent past, the Forum noted in the letter, terming it a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, which enshrines the principle of equality before law.

States such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Haryana have already dispensed with the practice, it said. Crores of rupees are being paid as income tax for about 60 functionaries in Telangana, the letter added.

Government orders attached with the letter showed that in 2014-15, the then Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao was paid ₹15.39 lakh in income tax from the government, which was part of a total ₹22.52 lakh tax payments sanctioned for a total of 10 functionaries. In Assessment Year 2020-21, income tax to the tune of ₹2.17 lakh payable by the then Minister for Health, Medical and Family Welfare Eatala Rajender was footed by the government.

Also objecting to the increase in pension for legislators serving more than one term, the letter sought payment of uniform pension irrespective of the number of terms served by the legislator.