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Tax
on interest on FDs Most of them derive their incomes solely from interest on their provident funds placed in fixed deposits. It is well known that the very large majority of these retired persons earn incomes of much less than Rs 25,000 rupees per month as interest. In fact many derive an income of just over Rs 9,000 per month. In their old age they find it difficult to make ends meet even without an additional burden of a withholding tax. Therefore the imposition of a withholding tax on this selected group is, at the very least, unfair. It is hoped the withholding tax would be imposed on interest income when it exceeds Rs 25,000 a month as is common to all other taxpayers. This tax is also iniquitous and discriminatory when one considers the fact that a person earning an income of Rs 300,000 a year (25,000 a month) from any other source is not taxable. It is not my intention to propose in this letter that they should also be taxed. In my view, in these days of a very high cost of living (worsening day by day) even the exempted limit of Rs 300,000 a year is not high enough. Many thought that the new budget would bring additional relief and are disappointed that it makes things worse. I am therefore requesting that this iniquitous withholding tax to be imposed in 2006 be modified so that all taxpayers are treated equally. The present government in its annual budget proposes the increase of the minimum wage of government employees to Rs 11,630 rupees a month. It is difficult to understand how this same government in its tax proposals decided to impose a tax on fixed deposit interest when it exceeds Rs 9000 a month. We hope the government realizes that in many cases the fixed deposit interest is the sole income of retired persons. The government despite its sympathy for senior citizens has failed to realize that the vast majority of fixed deposit holders are also senior citizens whose incomes are not much above Rs 9000 a month. On the national scale, the effect of this tax on fixed deposit interests would be to discourage savings. This would in the long run hamper economic development. Is this what the country needs at this stage? A Senior Citizen Sunday
Times FT editorial raises important issues In the forthcoming local elections voters have to be mindful of their local needs and elect representatives whom they think can deliver the goods irrespective of the political party to which they belong. In a country beset with party politics voters are made to act like a herd of cattle, running after a political party that they favour unmindful of the fact that an honest and efficient set of members if elected without considering to which party they belong to, can certainly attend the local needs of the community they represent. The ideal situation for this arrangement would be the reintroduction of the Ward system. Earlier there were signs that this was going to be. Apparently small political parties who are more concerned with their numbers may have opposed it.
V.K Wijeratna On
battle at Stassen The government set up Consolexpo and some officers in that company collected the export orders (for their own) at state expense and exported the tea through the company they set up overnight. They
are a big business group with diversified interest and political
patronage. A.
Kandappa |
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