The Bharatiya Pensioners Manch, the country’s pensioners’ group, has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to exclude pensions from income tax in order to provide relief to the country’s older citizens.
In a letter to the prime minister on August 25, the body argued that if pensions of members of Parliament and the Legislative Assembly are not taxable, then why does the government tax pensions of retired workers.
The pensioner’s body had questioned the PM in its letter that every retired individual receives a pension as a superannuation fund for his or her livelihood as a result of many years of service to the nation. The question now is why income tax is levied on retired employees’ pensions. This is not a payment for any services or labor. Why is our pension taxed if MPs’ and MLAs’ pensions are not?
The body determined that pensions should be exempt from income tax in its first all-India conference, held on July 23, 2018, in Shirdi (Maharashtra). Since then, the pensioners’ group has raised this issue with the finance minister on a regular basis, but there has been no response from the ministry, according to the pensioners’ body.
Bharatiya Pensioners Manch requests you to kindly intervene in the situation and direct the Ministry of Finance to examine this long pending genuine demand of pensioners,” the group said in the letter to the PM. An early and quick response with a line of reply to this organization would be greatly appreciated.
The organization also stated that it wrote to the Minister of Finance about the matter on August 23, 2018, December 14, 2018, and February 25, 2021.
Referring to previous letters sent to the Minister of Finance, the body stated, “We are sorry to say that nothing has been done so far in this regard.”
The organization also highlighted a Supreme Court ruling in which the Court declared that pension is a valuable right vested in a government employee and that the right to receive pension is a property under Article 31 of the Constitution.
According to the Supreme Court’s judgment, if it is refused by an employee, a writ of mandamus could be issued to the state to properly analyze the pensioner’s claim for payment of pension according to law.
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