In TN, MLAs' incomes go under-reported

Mahalingam Ponnusamy, TNN | Nov 23, 2011, 01.52AM IST

CHENNAI: Income tax sleuths are known to keep a hawk eye on collecting taxes especially from businessmen and the middle class. But there is no mechanism in place to ensure that the people's representatives pay taxes on the salary they get from the government.

With tax not being deducted at source, more than half the MLAs in the last assembly who contested again this year have underreported their Rs 6 lakh-ayear salaries in the affidavits filed with the election commission. Some, however, reported receiving much more than their income from the government. Ask income tax officers about the oversight and they put the onus on the legislative assembly secretary.

In a response to an RTI query, tax officials said: "No TDS returns have been filed by the Tamil Nadu State Legislative Assembly after deduction of tax from their salary."

An MLA in the Tamil Nadu assembly typically received a gross monthly salary of nearly Rs 50,000 in 2009-2010. Some 100 MLAs contested again in the 2011 assembly elections and filed affidavits with the election commission. Of these, 53 did not mention the annual income received from the government in their affidavits and eight said they did not have a PAN (permanent account number).

Chief electoral officer Praveen Kumar told TOI that candidates should have declared their gross income in the space provided in the affidavit. Those without a PAN include transport minister V Senthil Balaji, T Velmurugan, an ex-MLA who was expelled from the PMK, and R Chinnaswamy, elected from Singanallur constituency.

Six MLAs, including PMK state president G K Mani, who had a PAN, have reported that they did not have any taxable income. But, according to the RTI response from tax officials, only around Rs 5,000 of the MLAs' income was non-taxable. When TOI contacted some of the MLAs, they said they were unaware of the tax limit and procedures.

"The government is paying salary only after deducting tax amount. There is no need to file taxes personally and I don't have any assets in my name," said T Velmurugan, whose affidavit says he neither has a PAN and nor any income. There are defaulters in all the major parties.

Fifteen DMK MLAs out of the 30 who contested in 2011, 19 from AIADMK and 13 from Congress showed their income to be less than Rs 6 lakh. Striking a different note, H Vasanthakumar and Peter Alphonse of the Congress, S R Raja and P Moorthy of the DMK, and K A Sengottaiyan of the AIADMK declared incomes of over Rs 6 lakh. Sengottaiyan has declared his family income, too, in the affidavit.

V.Gopalakrishnan

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