Applicability of TDS

Posted on September 4, 2012 by SRRF

Dear all,

Greetings from CCDS,Bankura. We are a registered society working deep in the forest fringe villages for upliftment of standard of livings of poor villagers,mostly SC & STs. We have got registration u/s12A of I T Act 1961. We work for education,health.rural development so on. Recently we have got a proposal from a funding agency to take up construction of Girls hostel deep into forest village. Since we are a NPO ,under the said registration,we are not ready to accept TDS while getting progressive payment. Unless this point is made clear we are not going to sign MOU with them. However, they are ready to accept our request provided we submit them detailed Govt. order in this respect which we need at the moment.

Can we get help regarding this respect.
Thanking you,
S P Ghosh.
CCDS, BANKURA

Posted in FCRA, TAX, LEGAL | 7 Comments

Query- Consumer Protection Act

Posted on September 4, 2012 by SRRF

Dear Sir,

Thanks for sharing valuable information’s .Really it is adding our knowledge in different dimensions on all issues.

May I request you share your views under  Consumer protection act.

I had purchased a book( for medical exam  preparation) @1000 app  from retail book seller two months earlier. As per natural practice or trust on shop keeper we could not asked for invoice.  Book seller has only stamped on book for identification of his shop. After coming at home we found that there  is offer of  free book let of previous  ten  years questions with book which was not provided by the book seller. After contacting on mobile he told to come after one week . But he could not manage the book till date now he is telling that we  cant provide ,you should have asked at the time of purchase of book. is there any solution under consumer protection act.

With regards

Subodh

Posted in FCRA, TAX, LEGAL | 1 Comment

Bricks from Newspapers!!!

Posted on September 4, 2012 by SRRF

No one might have ever thought of using news paper waste to make bricks!!!  But two Nagpur based researchers came up with this idea way back in 2009. They thought of making bricks using sludge and solid waste material around news paper mill.

This idea was conceived by a researcher from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Nagpur, Sachin Mandavgane, who was guided and assisted by his co research fellows.  The result was a lightweight brick that is made with 90 per cent paper mill waste and 10 per cent of cement.

A variety of waste material has been used in the production of this light weight brick. For instance, waste materials like cigarette butts, fly ash, textile effluent treatment plant (ETP) sludge, polystyrene foam, plastic fiber, straw, polystyrene fabric, cotton waste, dried sludge collected from an industrial wastewater treatment plant, rice husk ash, granulated blast furnace slag and many more has been used.  The brick requires homogeneous mixing of recycle paper mill waste and cement.

The researchers are conducting further study on its effectiveness in earthquake prone areas. They also hope that the brick can be used as internal partition wall, for ceiling and making temporary hutments. As the brick making procedure being simple, it can be undertaken as rural entrepreneurship by unskilled labourers of developing countries too.  The light weight brick would be of great use, if the researchers are able to validate its effectiveness and its durability.

Posted in Positive Stories | 2 Comments

Welcome decline in pedestrian fatalities

Posted on September 1, 2012 by SRRF

SRRF which has been actively pursuing pedestrian safety agenda in Delhi is happy to note the reduction in fatal pedestrian accidents during the current year. This year, there appears to be a welcome decline.

 It is a known fact that almost every second person killed in a road accident is a pedestrian.

  • Till the 15th August, 2012, the city roads registered 143 less pedestrian deaths as compared to the same period in 2011.
  • Fatalities have mainly gone down in Ring Road, G T Karnal Road, Rohtak Road, Mathura Road & NH-24.

The Delhi Police claims that the decline in accidents was the result of various scientific measures undertaken with the help of civic agencies. The measures include- setting up of pedestrian signals, speed breakers, speed calming rumble strips, road signage, reduction in speed limit and extensive speed checks of vehicles with the help of interceptors.

The Delhi Traffic Police was successful in reducing road accidents in 2011. While the figure was lowest in 7 years, it still resulted in loss of 2066 lives. This, the Police is confident of bringing it down to below 1800 during the current year.

We all wish them good luck.

Posted in Pedestrian safety | 2 Comments

Corruption-can it be tamed?

Posted on August 31, 2012 by SRRF

Under pressure from various forces, the Central Government has taken a host of changes in vigilance operations within ministries. It has ordered each ministry to define and set up new mechanisms to curb corruption in its respective department.

Along with it, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) has ordered that decisions on prosecuting officials for graft be fast tracked.  The department further asked all ministries to take tentative view on the issue of starting prosecution against its officers and conclude a final decision within 3 months once advice is being received from CVC.

Further, in order to make the decision making quick, the DoPT has asked the authorities to avoid endless representations from the officers under suspicion. Besides this, there was recommendation for a monitoring cell to be set up in each ministry and department to keep a tab on the pending graft cases on a daily basis.

Last year, it also decided that during prosecution, some measures would be proposed which are as follows:

  • Retirement won’t be a ground to drop proceedings. After retirement, 10 % cut in pension would be imposed in case of minor penalty.
  • For a major penalty, instead of compulsory retirement, there would be 20% cut in pension.

Hope these measures would be implemented in an effective manner to have some impact.

Posted in General | 11 Comments

Centre forces state to become more humane with hawkers

Posted on August 30, 2012 by SRRF

Several state governments still have stringent punishment for hawkers hawking in the restricted areas. For instance, In Mumbai, for example, a hawker at present can be imprisoned for hawking in a no-hawking zone. This will no longer be considered as a cognizable crime, as objections have been raised by the Central Government. Maharashtra Govt. has now decided to do-away with the 6 months imprisonment for illegal hawking and hawking in a no- hawking zone. Such offences will invite only a monetary fine.

On the basis of a court directive, the state government had formulated legislation to regulate hawking, which was approved by both houses of the legislature in 2010.  It was drafted on the basis of recommendations by an expert panel comprising state officials, hawkers’ union representatives and eminent citizens. After the legislature’s approval, the legislation was sent for Presidential assent.  A clear distinction between illegal and legal trade was drawn, besides introducing new concepts like stationery and mobile hawking. ‘Hawking in a no-hawking area’ cannot be considered as a ‘major offence’, as hawkers are not financially sound and well-educated.

 Adequate measure are also planned to make registration mandatory for the hawkers. The Centre is expected to discuss this and further plans to set up avenues of training and employment for the economically weak urban populations. The welfare measures initiated by the Government might prove to be a great boon for the hawkers, but at the same time, they would end up paying a heavy fine of Rs 5000/-, besides imprisonment, if they are found indulging in illegal trade.

 

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Poverty Head Count Ratio

Posted on August 29, 2012 by SRRF

It is estimated that India has one third of the world’s poor. Recently, Tendulkar Committee Report has been published. This gives state wise change in poverty figure over the period 2004-05 and 1993-94. Given below is the table indicating this change state wise. As one notices, four of the top states where poverty has been reduced are from the North-East. However there are a few states where it appears poverty has gone up. These states are- Tripura, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Uttaranchal.

Poverty Head Count Ratio

State

1993-94

2004-05

Decrease/ Increase(-) in Head count
Ratio

Manipur

65.10

38.00

27.10

Arunachal
Pradesh

54.50

31.10

23.40

Meghalaya

35.20

16.10

19.10

Assam

51.80

34.40

17.40


Pondicherry

30.90

14.10

16.80

Karnataka

49.50

33.40

16.10

Tamilnadu

44.60

28.90

15.70

Jharkhand

60.70

45.30

15.40

Andhra
Pradesh

44.60

29.90

14.70

Jammu

26.30

13.20

13.10

Haryana

35.90

24.10

11.80

Himachal

34.60

22.90

11.70

Kerala

31.30

19.70

11.60

Nagaland

20.40

9.00

11.40


Maharashtra

47.80

38.10

9.70

All India

45.30

37.20

8.10

Uttar
Pradesh

48.40

40.90

7.50

Bihar

60.50

54.40

6.10

Gujarat

37.80

31.80

6.00

West

39.40

34.30

5.10

Rajasthan

38.30

34.40

3.90

Delhi

15.70

13.10

2.60

Orissa

59.10

57.20

1.90

Punjab

22.40

20.90

1.50


Chhatisgarh

50.90

49.40

1.50

Sikkim

31.80

31.10

0.70


Uttaranchal

32.00

32.70

-0.70

Mizoram

11.80

15.30

-3.50

Madhya

44.60

48.60

-4.00

Goa

20.80

25.00

-4.20

Tripura

32.90

40.60

-7.70
Posted in General | Comments Off on Poverty Head Count Ratio

82 year old helps save water bodies.

Posted on August 25, 2012 by SRRF

Most of us don’t take initiative on the pretext that a single man cannot make any significant impact to its environment or surroundings. Well, Ram Kishan, an octogenarian and a retired school teacher is an exception, who chose to travel 35 km to the Delhi High Court for a cause- conservation of four water bodies in Ranikhera, Kanjhawala, in North-West Delhi. Ram Kishan, through a relevant PIL, to the Chief Justice, came forth, without any personal interest to nurture a cause relating to the public and environment at large. Not only Kishan came to witness the proceedings, but also produced before the court some valid testimonials and documents pertaining to the water bodies. As a result, the bench asked the Delhi Government, Municipal Corporation of Delhi and Delhi Development Authority to visit the area and ensure that the water bodies are preserved. All this became possible due to the relentless efforts of Ram Kishan, who tried to preserve the aesthetic beauty of the water bodies and further stating the significance of protecting the environment and maintaining the ecological balance. The directive passed by the Delhi High court was possible due to the efforts of Ram Kishan. He is an apt example that others must try to follow and emulate his efforts and conduct.

Posted in Positive Stories | 2 Comments

Can an NGO have two TAN Nos?

Posted on August 24, 2012 by SRRF

Dear friends,

May I raise some query as under:

An NPO (NGO, having its registered office in Delhi has a TAN. Recently a project based in Delhi was started under the same NGO. Is it all right for the project to have separate TAN? If it does, how is the IT return and TDS matters handled at the organisation level?

Glad to have your input.

Thank you.

Kt
(T.Kaithang)
Finance Director,
Emmanuel Hospital Association,
808/92, Nehru Place,
New Delhi. PIN 110019

Posted in FCRA, TAX, LEGAL | 4 Comments

FCRA CANCELLATIONS – Further developments

Posted on August 23, 2012 by SRRF
Friends,

I continue with our Dialogue on cancellation of FCRA. There is no doubt that due to large scale cancellations many genuine organisations have also been put in a lot of difficulty and anguish. Several of them, if not all, have upto date filing of returns.  Despite the same, these organisations are facing uncertainty about their future, due to freezing of their bank accounts. These organisations do not know how to manage their activities. They have to pay salaries, rents, food for children and for other essential and genuine needs. If they withdraw funds from FCRA account, they are going against the law, since they cannot touch that money once FCRA is cancelled. However they may not have much choice considering the ground realities of running projects.

FCRA Dept. seems to live in its own world. While it is acknowledged that they have to weed out non-compliant, but I am sure they can do so in a manner that least disrupts the activities of the genuine organisations. FCRA Dept.’s defence seems to be that they have sent notices to all the cancelled organisations and they took this action only because either these notices have been returned, undelivered or remained unanswered. Such a large number of organisations were untraceable seems a bit difficult to digest, however even if it is accepted, why not consider suspending the registration under S. 13 of FCRA 2010 Act. In fact the very purpose of bringing suspension clause was realisation, at the time of drafting the legislation, that before cancellation a final opportunity needs to be provided considering its severity. However the Dept. has gone ahead and cancelled registration of more than 4100 organisations.

Further S. 14 (2) goes on to state that ‘No Order of cancellation of certificate under this section shall be made unless the person concerned has been given a reasonable opportunity of being heard’. How many have been given this opportunity is anybody’s guess.

This is not the first time that the Dept. has taken such brazen action. Last year, rules required that all organisations transferring funds even to registered organisations would require prior permission from the Dept. This despite several representations submitted to the Dept. by several organisations, including two by SRRF, that this is against the very principle of the FCRA Act which allows registered organisations to receive funds. Soon they realised the Rule was not practical since the Dept. could never handle the scrutiny of such a large volume of transfers. They had to initially issue clarification and subsequently amend the rule.

Address
Some confusion is there, if organisations have to have their registered office address with FCRA Dept. It is clarified that the Dept. asks for ‘postal address’ when one applies for the registration and not registered office address (see new Forms FC3 & FC4 – application for registration & prior permission ). Problem is that once this address has been put on record, and if your postal address has changed, you need to update the same with Dept., otherwise any notices issued by the Dept. may not be received. This is to be done manually by submitting relevant form for the same.

Silver Lining
Even in case of cancellations there may be a silver lining for some of the cancelled organisations who have otherwise complied with the law. It is suggested that all such organisations should immediately submit evidence that they have complied with various provisions of the Act.

A lot of pressure is being built on the Department on this account and let us hope it will result in some positive development, but in the meantime ensure that you have put up your case with the dept.

Hoping for early resolution

Subhash Mittal
 
 
Posted in FCRA, TAX, LEGAL | 7 Comments