I am a retired person with taxable income. I am having a deposit with local post office under Senior Citizens Savings Scheme. The person in the counter blindly insists everybody to submit Form 15G.
Though I have explained to him that I have taxable income, so that I cannot give Form 15G, he does not accept it. After great efforts, I made him to deduct the TDS. Then comes the next problem that neither he nor the post master knows anything about Form 16A that they have to give for the TDS. They are not able to give a proper Form 16A so far and the amount deducted has not yet been reflected in Form 26AS and hence not yet been accounted. Now my query is why the income-tax authorities, who are insisting on TDS, have not enlightened the concerned offices and officers regarding the requirements of law. What can I do for the current financial year? Whether I should sail along with others by blindly submitting Form 15G? Kindly advise.
The above letter from a reader in Selaiyur, Chennai-73 is typical of many such complaints of those not only having income from investments in post offices but also from a large number of branches of banks. One cannot file Form 15G or 15H blindly to lighten the task of the deductors, since it would be a serious breach of law, if such forms are filed by a person, who has taxable income.
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The reader is perfectly right in that it is the responsibility of the income-tax authorities to caution the deductors about their duties and offer training for them. Since post offices or public sector banks are government undertakings, the income-tax authorities have an added responsibility to enforce compliance of law. What is worse is that there is no enforcement of TDS law, which if it is done, would wake up these institutions to their obligations.
Even where the law is enforced, it is to ensure collection of tax from the deductors and not to enable credit of tax collected for deductees.