Special Allowance is not exempted from Tax

There is an email under circulation among the Navodayas claiming that the Special Allowance is exempted from Income Tax. As it is from one of the leaders of the Union, many think it as authentic info. Whereas the attached response from Income Tax Officer,Bhopal is not clear about the exemption.

Special allowances are exempted from income tax,according to clause (14) of section 10, if they fulfill the following criteria:
(i) Any special allowance or benefit granted to an employee to meet the expenses incurred in the performance of his duties as prescribed under Rule 2BB subject to the extent to which such expenses are actually incurred for that purpose.

(ii) Any allowance granted to an employee either to meet his personal expenses at the place of his posting or at the place he ordinarily resides or to compensate him for the increased cost of living, which may be prescribed and to the extent as may be prescribed.

However, the allowance referred to in (ii) above should not be in the nature of a personal allowance granted to the assessee to remunerate or compensate him for performing duties of a special nature relating to his office or employment.

Para 7.21.3 of VI PRC report,based on which NVS Teachers are granted special allowance, says that "the Government should consider grant of a special allowance in these(read navodayas) schools on par with that being recommended by the Commission for Military Schools in Ministry of Defence and the Oak Grove School in Ministry of Railways"

Now look at Para 7.36.93, pay commission clearly says the reason for granting such allowance which reads like this:the Commission has recommended a special allowance of 10% for Military Schools on account of special functions that need to be performed by Teachers/other residential staff working in the residential schools.

Any one can clearly understand that the special allowance which we get is due to 'the special nature of work' but not either 'to compensate for the increased cost of living' or "to meet the expenses incurred in the performance of our duties". So our allowance will not fall under exempted allowances.

What worries everybody is the vulnerability of our staff to be misled. We need to educate ourselves.

All Eyes on Reveiw Meeting

when strike was called off,majority of the employees felt assured that their genuine demand would be accepted and they would become eligible for Pension under 1972 pension act. Many silently wished for a negotiated settlement. We are aware of our special responsibility in our Vidyalayas. The moment we go on strike, we stand as a bad example for our children. Ministry of HRD should be able to impress the finance ministry of the unique situation of Samiti where the strike has many adverse and negative fall outs unlike the strikes in other organizations under other ministries.
Hope ministry of HRD and Finance would understand the importance of negotiated settlement in view of the consequences which may manifest in negative behavioural attitudes of our students.

Lets hope, the review meeting which is told to be held on 8th March, would play an accelerating role in expediting the process towards our ultimate goal of attainment of social security.

STRIKE IS CALLED OFF ON ASSURANCE OF TIMEBOUND ACTION

"In view of the assurance given by the Secretary on behalf of the Govt of India the JAC had decided to call of the indefinite strike. The Secretary, Ministry of HRD has patiently heard the demands and expressed that Ministry fully supports for the demands of Employees of NVS and ensured JAC that Govt is taking up the issue with Ministry of Finance and a favourable decision will be evolved as early as possible. Also Commissioner has suggested an action plan on a time bound basis to achieve our objective of materializing both our demands of 1972 pension and 10% Special Allowance to non-teaching staff."

Lets hope something positive would transpire within a reasonable time frame. Else as JAC expressed in its call off letter,"let us also remember that we have not spared our last resort of indefinite strike and our purpose is to get the demands achieved on negotiations".

Pension was assured for Navodaya Employees.

There are rumours under circulation across the navodayas during the last an hour that an agreement was reached in principle between JAC and Govt of India regarding pension. It is said that JAC was assured by Education Secratary regarding Pension. Strike might be called off.

Unprecedented Rally of Navodaya Employees

The rally at Jantar Mantar turned out to be a grand success. Even JAC leadership might have not expected the huge turn out that was witnessed at Jantar Mantar. Around ten tousand employees were present there to show their solidarity and strength. It is a glorias moment in view of the past rallies which turned out to be not so successful.
This success also shows that the fear factor has its end in Samiti. Let us throw the the Era of Navodaya I to the history's dust bin. ITS NAVODAYA II. A new era where there is no fear of opression. It's a new confindent NAVODAYA which won't shirk away from calling a spade a spade. Let us keep this momentum and fight for our rights until we get them.

TEACHERS DAY BEING OBSERVED AS HUNGER WORK DAY IN NAVODAYAS

In response to the call given by Navodaya Employees Joint Action Committee, employees of Navodaya Vidyalaya observed Teachers Day as Hunger Work Day to protest against the govt's apathy in providing GPF Cum Pension benefit to the employees who joined prior to 01/01/2004. Employees assembled in front of the school campuses at 7am and formal inaugurations of Hunger Word Day were done. They reaffirmed their decades old commitment for the Rural Poor Children and pledged to go on fast and work with more dedication on Teachers Day.
Employees expressed their sorrow for the deaf year meted out to them so far for their Genuine Demand of GPF Cum Pension Scheme for the employees who joined prior to 1-1-2004. In spite of the two parliamentary standing committees’ recommendations to accord the same benefit to the Navodaya Employees as it was accorded to Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan Employees, nothing was done so far. Even recently Employees of Accreditation and Assessment Council of India were allowed the benefit of GPF Cum Pension scheme.

KVs are residential schools whereas Navodaya Vidyalayas, who are administered by NVS which falls in the same Ministry of HRD, are residential school. KV employees work for eight hours a day whereas Navodaya employees work all through the day and night 24x7.Teachers are the House Masters and they have to take care of their students in a residential set up. KV teacher’s work ends at 2pm but a Navodaya Teacher’s work ends at 10 pm with night roll call in dormitories. In spite of this extraordinary commitment shown by the teachers, they could not get the equal benefits.

Employees of Navodaya Vidyalayas hope to get the attention of the govt by going on fast on Teachers Day. Teachers’ working with hunger on teachers’ day is not good omen for any nation.

United Struggle for GOI Pension for Navodaya Employees

It's a good news for all the employees of the samiti irrespective of the cadre. Two factions of ainvsa came together along with principal's forum and other unions with single point agenda of getting GOI Pension. Now we can hope for some movement in that direction.
JAC decided to observe the Teachers Day as HUNGER WORK DAY to draw the attention of the authorities to the dire need of GOI Pension to Navodaya Employees. All the employees will work on that day with at most dedication but FASTING THE WHOLE DAY. All the units should publicize this at their level best.

The following are the members of the JAC:
1. Sri V L Balasubramanian, JNB Kasaragod
2. Sri R.S. Naik, JNV Kanacona
3. Sri T.P. Mani, JNV Kollam
4. Sri L.B. Reddy, JNV Warangal
5. Sri J.K. Singh, JNV Katihar
6. Sri Jagadeesh Rai,
7. Sri Shiv Narayan Sharma, RO Chandigarh
8. Sri Vijaya Kumar,JNV
9. Smt Sunitha Bhatt, RO Chandigarh
10. Sri P Rajesh, JNV Kasaragod
11. Sri P K Guptha, JNV Ratibad
12. Sri S S Dora, JNV Angul
14. Sri Yogendra Kumar Sharma, JNV Kotiya
15. Sri Gajendra Kumar, JNV Mahendragarh
16. Ms Mary k P, JNV Hoshangabad

A delegation consisting of 11 members of JAC called on the Hon Minister Sri Kapil Sibalji, MHRD on 10th evening at 7.30pm and submitted the memorandum. He promised that he would look into the matter. You can read my previous posts how much pension you would get under nps and Navodaya employees got pension.

New Pension System notified by Samiti

New Pension System was notified by samiti last week and employees who were appointed prior to 1/4/2004 should exercise their option with in three months. Many employees are confused about the system as NPS is a noval product. All the senior employees got disappointed as they could not get GOI pension. Majority lack a clear understanding of the NPS and its architecture. In order to decide the pros and cons one must understand the product first. I think you can get all your doubts cleared at pension fund regulators site
There is one important positive of NPS. In old system 10 per cent of basic pay was the contribution from the employee and the employer. Under NPS, both contribute 10 per cent of Basic Pay+Grade Pay+Dearness Allowance. For an employee who is two or three decades away from retirement, the contribution from Samiti will be far higher than that of Samiti's contribution under CPF as it is restricted to 10 per cent of Basic Pay and Grade Pay and Dearness Allowance is not considered.. Please read my post:"how much pension you would get: for further information and links for calculations.

What happened to Transfers?

Many teachers, who took lot of trouble to go down to Bhopal so that they would be near to their homes and families, are anxiously waiting for the details of the transfers. But nothing was posted until now on the web site. Hardly it would require a couple of days to finish the formalities. Abnormal delay in finalization of the transfer orders affects the working of the Vidyalayas as many teachers are not able to concentrate in their present Vidyalayas. There are some rumours under circulation about the orders being cancelled! When Samiti wants effeciancy and excellance at RO level and Vidyalaya level, HQ should stand as an ideal. They should have not taken this much of time!! The damage is already done!!

Injustice to senior teachers in pay fixation

We had been waiting for the revision of pay for a long time and we felt glad when pay revision report was made. We were a bit happier than other employees, as scales of teachers were upgraded and at Navodaya we got the additional ten per cent residential allowance.

But when we look at the notification and its implementation, the teacher community was meted out step motherly treatment due to the interpretation of rules only in letter but not in spirit.

As per Rule 8 of revised pay rules, a PRT will get basic pay of 13,500 whereas a TGT and PGT will get 17,140 and 18,150 respectively at the time of their appointment directly. In Navodayas, the pays of the newly recruited teachers is not fixed accordingly. But newly recruited teachers will certainly get the benefit as Director UT-2 MHRD vide letter NO.F3-43/2008/UT-2 dated 20h March 2009 has issued clarifications in consultation with Min. of Finance to KVS.

According to Note 7 under Rule 7 of revised pay rules seniors’ pay will be stepped up to that of junior. But the letter mentioned above clearly stipulated the following conditions:

(a) Stepping up the basic pay of seniors under the above provision can be claimed only in the case of those cadres which have an element of direct recruitment and in cases where a directly recruited junior is actually drawing more basic pay than the seniors. In such cases, the basis pay of the seniors will be stepped up with reference to the basic pay of the junior.

(b) Using the above provision, Government servants cannot claim stepping up their revised basic pay with reference to entry pay in the revised pay structure for direct recruits appointed on or after 1.1.12006 as laid down in Section 11 of Part A of First Schedule to the CCS (RP) Rules, 2008, if their cadre does not have an element of direct recruitment, or in cases ,where no junior is drawing basic pay higherthan them.

(c) Stepping up of pay of the seniors in accordance with the above provision shall not be applicable in cases where direct recruits have been granted advance increments at the time of recruitment.

When you apply the above conditions, the stepping up of pay will not apply to many

cases. I have given a few examples.

1) A PGT who joined in 2002 gets revised at 18010 on 1/01/2006. He may not get the benefit of stepping up on notional basis. As there is no direct recruitment in year 2006, and the first junior is recruited in Feb. 2007 and by that time after taking his annual increment, his pay will stand at 18560 which is higher than 18,150.

2) A TGT who is recruited on 12/02/1997 gets his pay fixed at 17,440 whereas a TGT who is appointed on 1/1/2006 gets his pay fixed at 17140. The value of service for nine years is 300 (less than one increment)!! There is no case of stepping up as it is technically more than that of his junior.

3) A PGT who is recruited on 01.12.1999 gets his pay fixed at 19,500 whereas a PGT who is appointed on 1/1/2006 gets his pay fixed at 18150. The value of service for six years is worth 1350!!

4) A PET who is appointed on 10.26.1988 gets his pay fixed(after getting ACP in 2003) at 19130 which is only 730 more than that of newly recruited PGT!!

All these anomalies are the result of ambiguity in revised pay rules. All the above fixations were done as per the Note 2A under Rule 7 of Central Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2008. In explanatory memo to the above said rules certain illustrations were made and illustration 4A (which shows the bunching process of stepping up) applies to teachers as our scales were upgraded. The bunching benefit was denied by ministry of finance as no two stages are getting bunched into the same stage due to new system of running pay bands. (Ministry of Finance issued clarifications to that effect). Though all these anomalies may not violate the rules of notification technically, but they violate the spirit of up gradation of scales of teachers.

The same is the case of all the teachers across the departments and ministries. So it’s the right time for the teaching community to come together and work against the injustice meted out to our community. We should represent at all levels for the bunching benefit through which all the anomalies can be removed in pay revision.

We got arriers before KV guys!!

When I came to know that KV teachers are yet to get the arreares, I wondered a lot. Navodaya had been always at the receiving end while KV was pampered by the big bosses at HRD ministry. Sixth PRC has done some goodthings for Navodayans, teachers got 10 per cent residential allowance. Though they could not get stepped up basic pays unlike their colleagues in residential schools in Andhra Pradesh, it was not a total disappointment. Still Navodaya teachers feel discriminated as they are not entitled to GOI Pension. Employees do recognize the efforts of officers at the top within samiti for the positive changes that they have witnessed during last few years. But the logical conclusion of all such efforts is attaining GOI Pension. Unless it happens,employees will vote with their feet whenever and wherever they find greener pastures. Attrition will nagatively effect the students' academic performance.

New Pay for Navodaya Employees!

Navodaya Employees at last got the word!Pay revision orders were issued and put on the web today. First time in the history of NVS, teachers' extra services are recognized and rewarded. Ten percent residential allowance may not be enough to monetarily reward the work of employees. But it's a token of recognition of the teachers hard work. It may leave the non teaching employing fuming. The more the resentment, the more the red tap ism in the Vidyalayas.

Dipawali Bonanza fails to crack!!

Everybody went gaga about implementation of PRC as all of us were resigned to the possibility of prolonged delay. But it was not implementation as the link on the website suggested. It's just a proposal which has to go through the scrutiny of a group of officers. No body knows what would be the final outcome! It would have been better if it is declared after the approval from the ministry.

Being a house master in Navodaya means you are a teacher cum warden. Though they call you a loco parent, house master is not any where near to the parent. If we analyze the teachers role as House Master, the major advantage is the extent of influence a teacher can wield on children so that that the things go normal. There are a few disadvantages from academic perspective:
House Masters and children are always so near, things get so informal and it results in lack of seriousness regarding academics. They show in movies such as To Sir with Love and TJP,but it never happens in reality. You can't find many teachers with all the virtues. It's human to have vices. So such vices are also going to sprout in your students. It's OK to bear the bedlam created by a couple of children in your house. But what about the bedlam by a gang of 40. So here starts the gap!! You want them to be silent. They want to live like children. You want them to grow a few years more, they want to get a few years younger.

How much pension you would get?

Government of India decided to adopt New Pension Plan for NVS employees. Presently under CPF system, 10 per cent of basic pay is subscribed by the employee and the same amount is added by NVS. Under the new system, one has to pay 10 percent of basic and dearness allowance and the same amount will be added by NVS. The other big difference is transparency and empowerment that comes to you to manage your own money. Presently the return is pegged with the rate of interest decided for EPFO. Which is paltry considering the rate of return that could be generated with proper allocation to equity. Many employees out rightly reject the idea of new pension plan. Before taking a decision, proper study is required. If you take an example of 30 year old employee, whose basic salary stands at 20000 with expected average annual increase of 3 percent, will fetch him less than a crore as his retirement fund. (Taking average rate of 8 percent) Under new system the retirement corpus would be less than 5 crore. As the Dearness Allowance is also included for the subscription the expected average annual increase in the salary amount can be presumed at 8 percent. Over the long term equity would usually fetch 15 percent (there is great deal of historical evidence to prove that point). If you want to calculate your own retirement corpus, you can do it here.
Out of the retirement corpus, 6o percent of it can be taken back by you. Remaining 40 percent you have to hand over to an insurance company for your pension. You can customize it as per your requirement. All that will be done based on the interest rate at the time of your retirement. So what worries many of us may be lack of fixed amount. Who knows we get more than what we would get under the old policy? All of us need to do lot of home work! The first step is to get acquinted with the new system. You can do it at pension portal of govt of india.