The Uttar Pradesh state government exchequer has been paying the income tax of all the chief ministers and ministers since 1981, reports Times of India. A law, Uttar Pradesh Ministers' Salaries, Allowances and Miscellaneous Act 1981, passed by then Chief Minister VP Singh, stated that since the ministers were poor and had meagre salaries and could not afford to pay the tax. It should be noted that UP is one of the poorest states in India.
Since then UP had 19 Chief Ministers and over 1,000 minsters.
A section of the Act says, “Every minister and minister of state shall be entitled, throughout term of his office, to a salary of one thousand rupees per month. Every deputy minister shall be entitled, throughout the term of his office, to a salary of six hundred and fifty rupees per month. "The salary referred to in sub-sections (1) and (2) shall be exclusive of the tax payable in respect of such salary (including perquisites) under any law relating to income tax for the time being in force, and such tax shall be borne by the state government.”
The list of chief ministers who have had the UP treasury pay their tax includes Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Mayawati of Bahujan Samaj Party, and the incumbent Yogi Adityanath.
In the current financial year, the income tax bill of Adityanath and his council of ministers was around Rs 86 lakh and was paid from the state treasury. UP principal secretary (finance) Sanjiv Mittal, confirmed as much to Times of India.
No comments:
Post a Comment