Majority of Singareni Collieries employees to benefit from enhanced Rs 12 lakh I-T limit

The SCCL employees have been demanding income tax exemption from the Centre for the last three decades

PEDDAPALLI: A majority of Singareni employees will benefit from the Centre’s decision to enhance the income tax limit to Rs 12 lakh. This has come as a boon for SCCL employees who have been demanding I-T exemption from the Centre for the last three decades.

Every year, Singareni employees were paying about Rs 1,000 crore towards income tax. This might come down to around Rs 500 crore with the new tax regime, officials pointed out.

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Out of 40,000 National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA) employees, 15,000 senior employees are working in different grades.

The remaining 25,000 will be below the annual income of Rs 12 lakh and they will come under the latest tax exemption rules.

The salaries of Singareni employees were increased in a big way with the implementation of the wage board norms.

Besides high salaries, the company provides a 33 per cent share of its benefits every year. Each employee will get Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. In addition to this, SCCL also provides Rs 90,000 as Diwali bonus.

All put together, each employee gets about Rs 10 lakh per annum while for senior employees, it is Rs 20 lakh per annum.

Based on the salaries, about Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh is being deducted from towards I-T per year. The employees have been complaining that nearly 30 per cent of their salary was being deducted towards I-T and have been demanding political parties and trade unions for I-T exemption for quite a long time.

Fighting for I-T exemption was, a political agenda for all political parties and trade unions, but since the decision was with the Centre, it did not materialise.

Now, though indirectly, the demand has been partially heeded to, with officials saying a majority of SCCL employees would benefit from the enhanced income tax limit.