With the IT department releasing the bank accounts of Madras University, based on a petition from the institution, staff members of the varsity got their monthly wages on Friday.
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It took an indefinite strike by the employees of the University of Madras demanding their monthly wages to propel the government to act. On Friday morning, even the pensioners and students gathered in the university’s main campus in Chepauk, expressing solidarity with the employees. Retired staff of University are also affected as faculty who after 2018 are yet to get their retirement settlements. They receive only their monthly pensions.
The Income Tax department had, on February 4, informed that it was freezing the State-run University’s bank accounts as it said the institution owed tax dues to the tune of Rs. 424 crore. University officials were puzzled as it is a state-funded institution and was exempted from tax. On Thursday, the University’s auditors petitioned the income tax department seeking condonation for “the delay in filing application for grant of exemption u/s 10 (23C) (iv) of the Income Tax Act” for the assessment year 2019-20. It is learnt that it was on the basis of this petition that the IT department has released the university’s accounts.
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The university is in a severe financial crisis as the State government has denied the university its annual grants for several years citing objections by the local fund audit (LFA). The Joint Action Committee of Madras University Faculty and Staff Unions, however, pointed out that while the audit objections amounted to only around 15% of the total expenses of the university the government had punished the institution by denying as much as 70-75% of the grants due to it each year. The university received only around 30% of the amount it was owed, causing chronic financial difficulties.
The university may not have faced this embarrassment had its financial officers been vigilant, say retired professors. “Seeking condonation now in 2024 for delay in filing of AY 2019-20 shows administrative laxity as well as lack of accountability,” said a professor, adding: “The finance department of the University is duty bound to follow it up with the auditors.”
On Friday afternoon, the higher education minister R.S. Rajakannappan told a Tamil news channel that he would discuss with the Chief Minister on the appointment of Vice-Chancellor. The appointment has been pending since August as the State government has been fighting a legal battle against the University Grants Commission’s requirement of appointing a UGC nominee to the V-C search panel.
In the evening a member of the convenor committee, which is monitoring the university affairs in the absence of a V-C, said salaries had been credited to the accounts of the employees and pensioners also received their pensions. According to the official, the delay in filing of IT returns, non-registration of the university as a state-owned service institution under the relevant rules had compounded to the problems. An official said the auditor had failed to apprise the institution’s finance department about the changed norms of filing IT returns in 2015-16 when the department digitised the process. “There was no awareness about this in the university and the auditor did not educate us,” the official explained.
The JAC of the Madras University faculty and staff unions announced that they had withdrawn their strike.