SHILLONG, July 22: Pensioners in the state are facing a lot of hassles in securing their pensions as banks have been asking them to obtain no objection certificate (NOC) from the Income Tax Department to avail the pension.
Revealing this, West Shillong MLA Mohendro Rapsang on Thursday said he had got several calls from pensioners who visited the Meghalaya Cooperative Apex Bank (MCAB) for their pension and were asked to get the NOC from the I-T Department. “Most of the pensioners are in the age group of 70-80 years. Why are they being harassed? The government should take care of this immediately,” he said.
When contacted, an official from the Cooperation Department said that the issue cropped up after the I-T Department issued a notice to all banks insisting that tribal people, who seek TDS exemption on their pension, shall approach the local Income Tax assessing authority for exemption certificate under Section 197 of the I-T Act, 1961.
According to the official, the Income Tax Department claims that the banks are duty bound to deduct TDS from accounts of tribal people if they do not obtain exemption certificate from the concerned Tax assessing authority by submitting Form 13 as mandated under Section 197 of the Act.
The official however maintained that the Finance department is initiating steps to address this issue.
An MCAB official said that they have filed an appeal against the order before the appellate authority.
It was also learnt that the I-T Department has imposed a hefty fine on MCAB for not deducting TDS from the accounts of the tribal people.
