Singur landlosers fume over 10% tax on relief

KOLKATA/SINGUR: There is a new twist to the Singur story. Something that might ignite fresh trouble this time among willing land-losers. Ironically, neither Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee nor Mamata Banerjee has anything to do with this mess. A provision of the Income Tax Act does.

It’s a rule that has come as a bolt from the blue to all concerned. Section 194 LA of the I-T Act applies to requiring bodies (WBIDC or KMDA in this case), to deduct 10% tax (at source) from the compensation money paid to landlosers.

The compensation amount paid to each land loser should be more than Rs 1 lakh. Even though West Bengal, and many other states weren’t even aware of such a provision, which came into effect in 1999 and was withdrawn soon after, the Centre has now implemented it. That, too, with retrospective effect from October 2004.

When told about the rule, Jahar Das, a land-loser at Bajemelia village off Singur, said, “If the government tries to extract this money from us we shall demand our land back”. Das has received around Rs 15 lakh as compensation.

Sushil Mal of Malpara, who after giving up two acres, has now become a daily wager, said he would move court against the government. “I have put my share of Rs 10 lakh in the bank. But my son, who was promised a job, has also turned a daily wager. We feel cheated. There’s no question of making more sacrifices.”

The official intimation has been conveyed by the Income Tax department (under the ministry of finance) to the state government. And the latter is especially peeved because its biggest land acquisition amount paid so far has been for the abandoned Nano project at Singur where around Rs 140 crore has been paid to 12,000 land losers for 997 acres.

The compensation circle for this project is complete and the provision would apply here more than the ongoing aerotropolis project or the Jindal Steel plant or, for that matter, the other steel plants at Purulia and elsewhere, an official at Writers Buildings confided.

Land and land reforms minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah said, “It’s impossible to deduct 10% from the compensation cheques given to the Singur land-losers. Or, for that matter, any other poor farmer from whom land has been acquired for industry.

The minister, known for his loud criticism of the government’s land acquisition haste, added, “Doesn’t the Centre realise what kind of impact this would have on the land-losers?” Bureaucrats at Writers Buildings have started looking for an escape route and counter provisions.