Lineage record for cut off year safeguard
Staff Reporter
(SIKKIM EXPRESS)
GANGTOK, September 22: Spiking up their level of protests, every member of the 35000 odd business community living in Sikkim will wear black bands and stick protest posters inside their business premises on September 24 and 25 to protest against the ‘discrimination’ meted out to the community by the Union government while implementing Income Tax Act 1961 in this Himalayan state.
Every business community member in Sikkim will wear black bands and display protest posters in their premises on September 24 and 25 to highlight our two main demands, said Sikkim Chamber of Commerce (SCC) president SK Sarda today in an emergency meeting of the body.
A large gathering of business community members from all the four districts had gathered at a local hotel here to accord their consent to the second phase of their protests in the Income Tax issue.
Volunteers have been selected by the body to oversee the preparations for the Gandhian protest in the State. Surveillance teams will also operating to see whether the protests are being followed by the business community members spread all over the State.
“Please don’t feel shy while wearing black bands. The band must be worn by the members continuously for two days at all places. The protest posters must be placed inside the premises”, Mr. Sarda told the gathering.
The SCC president also sported a black band today to signal the second phase of the protest by the business community here for their demands.
The first demand of the business community is – exemption of Income Tax for the 400 families of old business community and old settlers living in Sikkim before April 26, 1975, the date the erstwhile kingdom merged with India.
The second demand is for implementation of Direct Tax Laws to other non-exempted people of Sikkim on a ‘prospective date’ and not on April 1, 2007 as directed by the Union Finance Ministry.
The Union Finance Minister had said on the floor of the House that the Income Tax Act 1961 will apply on prospectively, said Mr. Sarda.
The SCC president also claimed that business community of Sikkim has been bracketed into ‘Non Sikkimese’ category by the Union government in the Finance Act. “This soil is our Sikkim. We have born here and will die here”, he said.
The old business community living here for generations should not be defined as ‘Non Sikkimese’ but as ‘Left out Sikkimese’, Mr. Sarda. The ‘Non Sikkimese’ description will not be accepted at any costs, he said.
During the second protest phase, the business community will also be submitting a reminder memorandum the Governor, Chief Minister and all concerned in the Union government urging them to redress the issue to its logical conclusion.
The business community had already submitted a memorandum to the Union Finance Minister on August 27 through the Sikkim Income Tax Office during the first phase of its Gandhian protest against the discriminations meted out to them.
Even after passage of a reasonable time, nothing conclusive has emerged from the Centre and delay on this will simply add difficulties both for the prospective tax payers and the administrator, said Mr. Sarda.
It may be recalled here that earlier this year, the Centre had exempted Sikkim subject holders from paying Direct Income Tax by passing an amendment in the Finance Bill of 2008.
People of Sikkimese origin having Sikkim subjects have been exempted from Direct Taxes as per the 26AAA clause paving way for the Act to be enforced in the state.
The era of Direct Taxes began in Sikkim with the Central Income Tax office starting its operations from August 6.
Old business community numbering to 400 families and other people working in the state represents a huge chunk of those people who do not have Sikkimese subjects and thus have to cough up taxes now as per Income Tax Act 1961.
This has triggered strong resentment among the local business community who do not have the Sikkim subjects or Certificate of Identifications though they have been living in the state for generations.
“Is this (discrimination) is our reward or punishment though we are living here since generations. It is very unfortunate. We (old business community) are also sons of this soil and have some rights”, said Suresh Agarwal, SCC general secretary to the gathering.
“We have become sacrificial lambs and it is a blot to the democracy”, he added.
On the need for a cut off year to segregate old business community from the rest, the SCC general secretary proposed for a safeguard exercise to chronicle a record
base of those business community members living in Sikkim since generations.
Stressing that this particular exercise is highly sensitive, Mr. Agarwal said that it is very important the members to know their history in Sikkim. An internal preparatory survey will be done to prepare our records and we will be ready to submit the records whenever the declaration process for a cut off year begins, he said.
The proposal was unanimously passed by the gathering.
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