Avinash Azad
Early Times Report
Jammu, July 5: The doctors at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) are feeling cheated, as they have been served notice by Income Tax department, despite timely deduction of tax by the DDO concerned.
"IT Returns filed by the medicos have not been submitted to the Income Tax department, and have allegedly been swindled by some officials", said a doctor, adding that they faced same problem last year too.
"The same incident took place last year in GMCH, when 104 doctors were directed by IT department to deposit their tax, otherwise action would be taken against them", he said adding that the medicos are in dilemma due to non-submission of the taxes deducted from their salaries by the department.
"On an average, each doctor has to pay Rs 40,000 as income tax each year, amounting to a sum of Rs 40 lakhs for all the doctors posted in GMCH, while all the doctors have paid their taxes through TDS, the 'scandal' came into light after scrutiny conducted by IT department", a doctor averred.
"It was shocking for me when I came to know that the tax that has been deducted from my salary has not been paid to IT department", said a senior doctor pleading not to be named.
The doctors suspect that officials of hospital's accounts department have swindled the money deducted as taxes. "SOs, Accountant and several others in violation of government's transfer policy have been working in GMC's Accounts department for last 20 years", said the doctor and alleged that these officials have hijacked the department.
"Anti graft agencies Crime Branch, Vigilance Organization and Income Tax department should take cognizance of the matter, so that the nexus is exposed", he added.
However, when contacted, Kajal Jasrotia, Chief Accounts Officer, GMC Jammu denied any embezzlement of deducted tax. "It usually happens due to technical errors", she said, adding that sometimes PAN provided by the doctors is incorrect.
"GMC is a big establishment, and there are close to thousand employees. Errors can takes place while uploading the data", the CAO said, adding the shall rectify the errors and there is no need to panic. |
