Rahul Dravid – Multilingual Interviews

Rahul Dravid in MARATHI

Rahul Dravid partly in KANNADA and partly in English

Should BCCI be under proposed Sports Development Bill ?

Badminton Star, Ms. Jwala Gutta is quoted as saying that the Badminton Federation of India (BFI) should learn from the BCCI i.e. the Board for Cricket Control in India as to how to market the sport.

Ms. Jwala said that, one cannot deny that Cricket is a Religion in India and is so popular because of the efforts of BCCI. She has lamented that the BFI has failed to give credit and recognition to the successes of the Badminton Players which means that youngsters have not been enthused to take up sports.

BCCI is often criticised in the media about the announcement of large cash gifts like 1 crore each to players who won the World Cup or the victory procession on an open double decker after winning the T-20 World Cup. But there is no denying that these gestures fire the imagination of the children and youth who then aspire to become cricketers and win fame and success.

IPL has also spurred many youngsters who see money in cricket and see a professional future. The same cannot be said of Badminton or most sports in India.

Therefore, you should not only succeed in sport (which is a given) but also market your success, so that you develop that sport.

At the other end of spectrum, Sports Minister, Mr. Lalit Maken wants to bring cricket and BCCI under the Regulatory Control of Government under the proposed Sports Development Bill.

The recent 4-0 whitewash has little to do with BCCI since we achieved the No.1 status in Test Cricket, won the ODI World Cup under the same BCCI, so what was good yesterday cannot become bad today.

We were outplayed by a better team on its home turf and we were hit by a spate of freak injuries, especially that of Gambhir. Zaheer’s injury at the very beginning was also unexpected. Pujara was also unavailable due to injury. Badrinath failed in ODIs in the Windies and Kohli failed in the Tests in the Windies. Raina after a successful tests series in the Windies failed in England. SRT and VVS did not get going in England and had an ordinary tour by their standards. No excuses, but it did happen.

So, BCCI is not fully to blame. So many young and fringe cricketers of India are earning reasonable money thru IPL who otherwise would not have.

So to take a series loss, albeit a 0-4 whitewash, as the end of the world and a BCCI failure is just fishing in troubled waters or adding fuel to fire.

At least, this should not be a reason to bring BCCI under Government’s Regulatory Control. Do the right thing for the right reason and not for the wrong ones.

India Inc. in urgent need of Electoral Reforms

Electoral Reforms are necessary to take our Democracy forward.

All political parties demanding their own smaller separate states must be necessarily asked to furnish a charter of their proposals as to how they are going to generate revenue to administer and develop their new states.

Simultaneously, Parliament should initiate electoral reforms to ensure that regional parties cannot contest national elections under any guise.

Only those parties who have got 25% share of the polled votes in the last general elections should be entitled to put up candidates.

Elected MPs should compulsorily be required to put up N number of questions pertaining to their constituency in their 5 year term.

MPs who have posted questions should also be required to be present in question hour.

Party whips should ensure that the Budget Session should be compulsorily attended by 90% of their MPs. Otherwise such political parties should be derecognized.

Finance Bill should be considered to be passed only if at least 75% of the parliamentary strength is present and voting.

MPs should not be allowed to abstain in a Confidence Vote and Vote on Budget.

MPs privileges and perks should be linked to their attendance.

Rajya Sabha Members are supposed to be the States’ Representatives in Parliament. Rajya Sabha in its present form should be done away with. After all there are going to be several smaller states and Rajya Sabha in its present form would be ineffective.

Instead, Rajya Sabha should be reconstituted so that political parties should be allowed to nominate candidates to the Rajya Sabha in the same proportion of the national votes obtained for the Lok Sabha (not of the seats). In this way, Technocrats, Professionals, Intellectuals, Social Activists, Media Persons, Military Strategists can participate in the legislative process. Special Interest Groups like Scheduled Castes & Tribes, Religious Minorities, Women, Third Gender can also be accommodated and the Parliamentary process can become truly inclusive.

Of course, those who have lost Lok Sabha elections should be disqualified for being nominated to Rajya Sabha for the same term.

No person should be allowed to be nominated for the Rajya Sabha for more than 2 consecutive terms.

No person should be allowed to contest for the Lok Sabha for more than 3 consecutive terms.

60 years have passed since we gained independence. AB TO JAAGO NETAJI and get down to the business of governance.

Or else we are doomed to be a failed nation. We would not require either Pakistan or China to do this to us…..

I.T.Notice of Demand for Interest for failure to pay Advance Tax

In the past few days many salaried employees have been receiving Notice of Demand from the Income Tax Authorities by way of Intimation U/s 143 in which the said employee is being asked to pay Interest U/s. 234B or 234C.

It should be noted that Interest U/s 234B / 234C is recoverable from them ONLY when they are in default for not paying Advance Tax.

U/s. 209 (d) of the Income Tax Act, Advance Tax has been defined to be the Residual Tax i.e. the Balance Tax payable AFTER reducing the Income Tax Deducted at source i.e. (TDS) from the Total Tax Liability of the person.

If entire tax liability is already recovered as TDS, then there is NIL balance / residual tax and therefore advance tax liability does not exist and so interest for default cannot be recovered.

Further, if such Residual Balance is less than Rs.5000/-, then the same can be paid as Self- Assessment Tax along with the Return of Income. In fact this limit is enhanced to Rs.10000/- from. 01/04/2009.

In case of salaried employees not having any other income, the tax is deducted at source by the employer and there is no balance tax payable.

Since there is no Advance Tax payable by the employee, the Notice of Demand u/s 156 / u/s 143(1), for Interest U/s.234B/C is bad in law.

This appears to be a software glitch which the Income Tax Authorities needs to look into.

Employees receiving such Intimation Notice should reply to the ITO as under:-

“Our employers have deducted income tax at source from our salary income and that there was no residual / balance tax liability in the nature of advance tax as defined U/s.209 (d) of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Since there is no Advance Tax liability in this case, Interest U/s 234B or 234C is not applicable. You are requested to rectify the order u/s 143(1) and send me a revised Intimation.”

Since then, I have also requested our local Member of Parliament, Shri Sanjay Nirupam, to use his good offices and take up and resolve this issue with the Revenue authorities.

The Times of India also carried an article on this issue a few days back.

A Visitor to this blog has informed us that I.T.Dept. has opened a Special Counter to deal with this glitch by seeking a uniform statement of particulars from concerned recipients of such notices.