Stop Paying IT of CM and Ministers, Forum for Good Governance Urges CS

Hyderabad: The Forum for Good Governance has written to the Chief Secretary seeking that the state government should paying the income tax of the Chief Minister, his cabinet colleagues and advisors with cabinet ranks as thy already enjoy many privileges.

The exemption, they said, was being made under clause (4), Section 3 of the AP (Telangana) payment of salaries and removal of disqualification Act, 1953 though they are entitled to facilities like special allowance, camp office allowance, security car allowance, house rent allowance and constituency allowance, among others.

The forum opined that the income tax exemption was impacting the state exchequer. It felt that the facility violates Article 14 of the Constitution of India (equality before the law). It pointed out that the practice of such tax waiver has been done away with in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Uttarakhand.

After the amendment of pension rules, it further said, a legislator gets Rs.30,000 per month for the first term or part of it and a pension of Rs.1,000 for each year of service in the subsequent term. It asked the chief secretary to dispense with this obnoxious practice and sought payment of one-term pension to MLAs irrespective of the number of terms they serve.