The Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) has issued new Income Tax Return Forms (ITR Forms) for the Assessment Year 2018-19, making it one page simplified ITR Form-1(Sahaj), that may benefit around 3 crore taxpayers. However, criticism mounted on personal questions it seeks from the taxpers.
This new ITR Form-1 (Sahaj) can be filed by an individual who is resident other than not ordinarily resident, having income upto Rs.50 lakh and who is receiving income from salary, one house property / other income (interest etc.).
Further, the parts relating to salary and house property have been rationalised and furnishing of basic details of salary (as available in Form 16) and income from house property have been mandated.
ITR Form-2 has also been rationalised by providing that Individuals and HUFs having income under any head other than business or profession shall be eligible to file ITR Form-2. The Individuals and HUFs having income under the head business or profession shall file either ITR Form-3 or ITR Form-4 (in presumptive income cases).
In case of NRIs, the requirement of furnishing details of any one foreign Bank Account has been provided for the purpose of credit of refund. Further, the requirement of furnishing details of cash deposit made during a specified period as provided in ITR Form for the Assessment Year 2017-18 has been done away with from Assessment Year 2018-19.
There is no change in the manner of filing of ITR Forms as compared to last year. All these ITR Forms are to be filed electronically. However, where return is furnished in ITR Form-1 (Sahaj) or ITR-4 (Sugam), the following persons have an option to file return in paper form:
(i) an Individual of the age of 80 years or more at any time during the previous year; or
(ii) an Individual or HUF whose income does not exceed five lakh rupees and who has not claimed any refund in the Return of Income.
The notified ITR Forms are available on the official website of the Department www.incometaxindia.gov.in.
The widow of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, shot to death amid war cry to “Get Out of My Country” by a white extremist candidly asked herself whether they belonged to America and rued that despite her pleadings to return to India, her late husband refused saying “good things happen to good people.”
Not so when we recall the days of cowboy violence and shooting spree reigned the largely immigrant nation in the 17th and 18th centuries. This is not the first time an Indian was killed as many Sikhs mistaken to be Muslims were also killed after the 9/11 attacks and outraged the American common man with little knowledge of the world.
“We’ve read many times in newspapers of some kind of shooting happening,” said a teary Sunayana Dumala, wife of Kuchibotla addressing her husband’s colleagues at Garmin International gathering after the gory incident.
“I have a question in my mind: Do we belong here?” she said making it stop the beating of all Indian immigrants to the US for a second. Yes, Indians hardly raised their voice in the US and many wives of Indian Americans wished that they could return to their home country one day or the other.
The attacks on Indian are undoubtedly on the rise in US and no consolation can wipe out the tears of those who had lost their dear ones in their search for “An American Dream”. When US had business tangles with Japan, several Japanese nationals were targets of the American ire and lost their lives for their looks. And now that Indians are the target for similar miconception about Indians robbing the natives of their jobs.
While the reality is that minus Indians, other nationals will fill the gap and not necessarily Americans would get these jobs. Further, leaving the US may further strengthen the revival of cowboy mindset of white extremists a-la Ku Klux Klan in the 18th century of America. Unless this mindset is addressed, there is no end in sight to American wrath against foreign workers and engineers in the US.
India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians (IDF-OI), a not-for-profit Trust set-up by the Government of India, was set up on the occasion of the closing day of the PBD convention in Bangalore on Monday. It facilitates philanthropic contributions by Overseas Indians to social and development projects in India and it will be chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
Presently, IDF-OI is promoting flagship programmes of Government of India- Swachh Bharat Mission and National Mission for Clean Ganga; and projects identified by the State Govts, for funding by Overseas Indians.
Working with State Governments in areas such as sanitation; education; drinking water; women’s empowerment et/c, IDF-OI is offering projects for funding by Overseas Indians. Overseas Indians can contribute as an individual, or a group of individuals or even through their respective Indian Associations.
IDF-OI does not recover any administrative cost from contributions received from Overseas Indians.
At the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention 2017 the Plenary Session I focused on the Indian Diaspora- Catalyst for Realising India’s Development on 08 January 2017, chaired by Minister of State for External Affairs M.J Akbar.
The session discussed how IDF-OI can effectively enable Overseas Indians to reconnect and contribute to India’s social and development efforts. They expressed interest in working with IDF-OI and highlighted the need for credibility i.e. accountability, efficiency, and transparency in project implementation and fund utilisation. At the conclusion of the session IDF-OI also received contributions from Overseas Indians.
The 15th edition of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention will be heldin Bengaluru, Karnataka from January 7 to 9, 2017. The first annual convention was held between January 9 and 11, 2003. January 9 was adopted as the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas or Overseas Indian Day based on the recommendations of a High Level Committee constituted in August, 2000.
The then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was keenly interested in the issue of overseas Indians. The oversubscription of the Resurgent India Bonds in 1998, when India was battling sanctions post-Pokhran II, showed their strong faith in an emerging India. In a post-Liberalization environment the Indian Diaspora was willing to engage back with their country of origin. India becoming an IT power hub, fast growing economy and atomic power gave the Diaspora much needed confidence. It was on display at various places – from sports field to trade conferences and international meets.
The concerns of the overseas Indians had been on the mind of the Indian leadership for long.The House of Commons in Britain was forced to investigate, as early as 1841, into the pitiable condition Indian indentured workers in Mauritius. This was within a few years of beginning of the indentured system following the abolition of slavery in British Empire (1833). Way back in 1894, the Madras session of Congress had adopted a resolution against disenfranchisement of the Indians in South African colonies. The Congress adopted similar resolutions at Poona (1895), Calcutta (1896), Madras (1898), Lahore (1900), Calcutta (1901) and Ahmedabad (1902) sessions. In those days the question of overseas Indians pertained mostly to Indians in South and Eastern Africa. It is they who had launched numerous struggles against encroachment on their rights by the local British government. The Gandhi-Smuts Agreement, 1914 signified a major victory for them.
But there were overseas Indians in South East Asia viz. Burma, Singapore, Malaya, Thailand etc. Many of them contributed towards India’s freedom movement in the 1940s by volunteering in or funding the Azad Hind Fauz of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Of particular interest could be the stories of those teenaged Tamil girls, born in rubber plantations of Malaya, who decided to shoulder guns for the independence of India, a country they had never actually seen.
The PravasiBharatiya Divas memorializes the arrival of Mahatma Gandhi to India on January 9, 1915. He had spent 21 years in South Africa fighting for the rights of Indian community. His technique of Passive Resistance, which he named Satyagraha, was developed in South Africa before being implemented in India. In the colonial world that Gandhi inhabited the profile, status and condition of the overseas Indians were markedly different from today.
Those were the days when one could not have been starry-eyed about ‘going abroad’ and ‘settling abroad’. A bulk of those who migrated abroad went for toiling in plantations or factories under Indenture System (to Africa, West Indies, Fiji etc), Kangany System (to Sri Lanka) and Maistry System (Burma). But they deserve credit as the pioneers who reversed the religious prohibition on seafaring that had fallen upon the Hindu society in the medieval ages.
In colonial times racial discrimination was instituted as a state policy by the colonial government. But the de-colonization brought in its wake another set of problems. In Gandhi’s lifetime itself the Indians in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Burma (Myanmar) entered a critical phase with Ceylonese and Burmese population respectively wanting to get rid of them. The first two legislations passed by the D.S. Senanayake government in independent Ceylon deprived almost a million people of Indian origin of their citizenship. While Indians might have captured power in Mauritius, they have been reduced to a miniscule minority in Myanmar. Thus Indians face a new kind of racialism in those erstwhile colonies.
The age of colonialism was an age of maritime empires. Till late 1950s, steamships were the most dependable mode of inter-continental travels. In early 1960s, the air plane replaced ship as the most preferred mode for long distance travels. It reflected upon the pattern of migration in terms of reach, human resource quality and connectivity with India.
Coincidentally around the same time the passage of Immigration and Nationality Act, 1965 in the USA paved path for immigration of highly skilled professionals and students. This historic piece of legislation changed the size and profile of the Indian immigrant community. From a meager 12,000 in 1960 the number of Indian immigrants has risen to 2.5 million now. Such educated and successful immigrants are providing sinews to the Indian Diaspora.
But there is another side of the coin. When during the years of ‘Socialism’ India remained trapped in poor economic growth rate, the immigrants to the West were somewhat apologetic about their Indian identity. In India also the Non Residents Indians were perceived as escapers. But faster economic growth rate post-Liberalization, India’s emergence as IT power hub and the advent of Vajpayee government etc boosted the morale of the overseas Indians.
The advent of satellite television, Internet and rising tele-density in the 1990s meant overseas Indians could be in regular touch with India. It was now possible for an overseas Indian to spend time thinking the interests of his mother country. Indians, resident and overseas, could commonly exercise opinion on bolstering India’s position in the world stage. This gave rise to the concept of ‘New Global Indian’ as the title of magazine launched from Boston in 2008 by Kanchan Banerjee stated.
But overseas Indian community, in several parts, continues to face severe challenges of racism, religious fanaticism and legislative disabilities. As against popular misconception not everyone is successful. Thus it is not yet time to lower the baton raised by Gandhi in South Africa in the 1890s.
(The writer is a columnist and independent researcher based in New Delhi. The opinions expressed above are his personal.)
