|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Thursday, 2 May 2002 |
 |
|
 |
Letters | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Sports Obituaries
|
Please forward your letters to editor@dailynews.lk in plain text format within the e-mail message, since as a policy we do not open any attachments.
After 30 years of teaching at a university I retired on the princely Senior Lecturer Grade I salary of about rupees fifteen thousand. My nephew with O.L. qualifications joined a prestigious company and after about five years was getting around rupees thirty thousand per month. I, of course left a more lucrative permanent job at the Engineering Corporation and joined the University as a temporary hand initially at one quarter the salary, simply because I loved teaching and I thought I could serve the country and enjoy myself too through teaching. Though I was a total non-smoker and teetotaller and dressed very simply and we ate simple village food, (no ham, bacon, butter, cheese etc) I had to earn extra through visiting lectures to cover up the monthly shortage in income. My only luxury was my car, which I have been using for over twelve years. At retirement six years ago I received a provident fund of about rupees nine and a half lakhs. I decided to work as long as I could earn a living and invested my provident fund in a fixed deposit and allowed it to grow so that I could get a reasonable interest in my later years of life. The interest at that time was 15%. The last government reduced it to twelve per cent and the present Government is going to charge a ten per cent tax which will bring down the effective interest rate to 10.8 per cent. But what is the inflation now? If it is fourteen per cent my capital is eroding at 3.2 per cent per annum. My worry is for the future. At the present rate of the interest I will get a monthly income of about to be 14,000 on my fixed deposit. With the continued devaluation this will effectively be equivalent to about rupees 3,500 in about ten years time. If unfortunately I would have to live for another ten or fifteen years, would this amount be enough for me. Will the Government look after me. Those who are in employment get salary increases. pensioners also get some increases, but not us. U. ATTANAYAKE SOORIYABANDARA , Mt. Lavinia
In the budget proposal made on March 22, 2002 a 10% Withholding Tax has been imposed on Interest and Dividends and it is also proposed that the Interest and Dividend Income will not be aggregated with other income in the annual return. (a) Interest Income We are thankful to the Minister of Finance for having raised the threshold for Withholding Tax on interest from Rs. 6,000/- to Rs. 72,000/- per annum. However, the following matters need clarification: i. Is this limit of Rs. 72,000/- p.a. for the total interest received from all deposits made by an individual or for each deposit? ii> If it is the former how will Financial Institutions know the details? iii> If the interest income exceeds Rs. 72,000/- p.a. with an Institution will the entire interest become liable for Withholding Tax or only the excess over the Rs. 72,000/-? Even this exemption limit of Rs. 72,000/- is not adequate when you consider the Statutory Tax allowance limit which has been raised from Rs. 144,000/- to Rs. 240,000/- p.a. You could observe that it is unfair when a person whose sole income is from interest on deposit earning, (say Rs. 75,000/- p.a) becomes liable for 10% Withholding Tax whereas other income earners would not be liable for tax up to an income limit of Rs. 240,000/-. It is therefore, better to give the option of including the interest income in the Annual Return or not, to the tax payer. ie; if necessary he could include the interest income in the Annual Return and claim credit for the Withholding Tax recovered from him or omit the said income completely. The problem could be solved by increasing the threshold for Withholding Tax to Rs. 144,000/- p.a. and giving the option of including or excluding the interest income in the Annual Return to the tax payer. If includes the liable interest should be taxed at 10% Dividend Income Similar to interest income the plight of small shareholders has to be considered. They should be given the option of including the Dividend Income in their Annual Return and Claiming Tax Credit imbedded in the said dividend income. If their total income per annum is less than Rs. 240,000/- they could request for a refund. At present Dividend Income from a Limited Liability Company to another such company is not taxable and quoted companies are not required to deduct Withholding Tax when Dividends are paid to resident shareholders. By the imposition of the WHT on Dividend Income the income received by another resident company is reduced by 10%. It is suggested that one of the following methods be adopted: i. When dividends are declared by a company, tax need not be withheld on the dividends payable to another company. Tax shall be withheld only on dividends paid to individuals: or ii. When limited companies receive dividend from another limited company, the WHT deducted should be allowed as a credit against the tax liability of the said company after grossing up the dividend income. Since the above matters require close scrutiny, I suggest the relevant authorities discuss this with professional bodies, trade chambers etc. before implementing same. S. R. BALACHANDRAN Council Member, The National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka
Recently it was reported that a child died by attempting to experiment an acrobatic exercise which had been displayed over the television. This was reported in the news bulletin of the electronic media. This will be a good lesson not only for parents and children but also for the media authorities who are irresponsible in fulfilling their duties. It has been the practice of the electronic media to give to its viewers anything as they wish without carefully selecting what is beneficial to the society. This is a very unethical practice which would take forward the country to its disaster. Through electronic media they portray scenes which accentuate and promote sex, crime, use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. These people may sell anything for want of money. I have clearly noticed that a certain television channel telecasts tele dramas every Saturday at 7.30 p.m. which induces so much promotion for alcohol and tobacco use and especially non-alcohol users are humiliated through the stories that they carry on that particular day. These stories seem to have produced for that particular purpose of promoting alcohol and tobacco and humiliating those who attempt prevention activities. Is this the kind of media ethics that they should follow or practise? To add to this shameless situation we have come to know that very soon alcoholic beverages would be directly advertised in the electronic media. Are we heading our children for a vulgar society? DR. WASANTHA DISSANAYAKE-Homagama
Recently we read in newspapers that a local Internet switch has been established for transferring Internet and e-mail traffic. Without this almost all local Internet traffic has to go to USA and come back here as the Internet is designed to be USA centric. (This situation is gradually changing). To transfer Internet traffic within the SAARC region, if a similar kind of Internet switch is established, that would facilitate efficient Internet traffic transfer within the SAARC region without having to transfer them through USA. It is time that the SAARC countries got together and established an Internet Gateway of their own. K.G.E.- Nugegoda.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) The Local Press has reported the presence of the above mentioned Indian Organisation in Sri Lanka. We have been also told that this Group recently has visited the areas in the North and East not controlled by the government. My main concern is the statement made by the leader of this group. In that statement, (1) the church in Sri Lanka has been described as being "increasingly assertive and aggressive". And it has been said (2) "We have a problem with Islam and Christianity". We in Sri Lanka, are very proud of our multi-religious culture. For centuries, we have been living and working together. Recently, in the context of the Sri Lankan peace process, the work that we do is inter faith. We are proud of this ethos. These statements from the Indian organisation, trying to work in Sri Lanka must be seen in the context of the recent Hindu-Muslim conflict in Gujarat. And also the dream of the Hindutva ideology. This dream is the hope that the Muslims in India will be known as Hindu Muslims. Also conversions will be a crime. It is good for the VHP to know that India has had a different dream also. Jawaharlal Nehru wanted a Secular India. It was Sardar Vallabbai Patel, in the context of the New Indian Constitution and the freedom for all religions, who said that the Church in India must have the freedom to proclaim the Christian Gospel. I do not think that we in Sri Lanka, trying to work for Peace, to solve our national problem, will want to enter a religious war. May I therefore, plead that our Hindu friends in Sri Lanka, do not allow this VHP, doing any damage in our country. Of course, in the context of the recent Indo-Sri Lanka understanding, Colombo cannot prevent anybody coming from India. I hope and pray that sanity will prevail and that we will not enter a period of religious wars in Sri Lanka. The Very Rev. Fr. Sydney Knight - Colombo 7.
Time is man's enemy. Because, first and foremost, it makes him old and finishes his life which he wants to continue forever. However, depending on a matter time makes him ecstasy or agony. It makes him run hither and thither to earn, to enjoy and to obtain his other requirements. It does not wait for him nor can he stop it moving fast. 'Time and tide wait for no man'. Yet, everything should be done in time. An appointment confirmed at a specific time should be anyhow fulfilled. In breaking an appointment or delaying it will cause great inconvenience to all concerned in some way. Even in regard to travelling or entertainment time must be maintained for the good of all. We watch a teledrama on one channel expecting to switch on to another channel for news, at the end of the drama. But mostly it does not happen. The drama continues for over 3 or 5 minutes than its scheduled time of ending by which we will miss a few news items together with pictures. We buy a drama ticket noting the time of its commencement and think that we could manage to go to the station to board our train after the drama was over. But what happens? The drama starts half an hour late thereby making us miss our train and wait at the station for another train to come after one hour or not at all.Time is taken for a joke too. Some people do not take the dead bodies of even loved ones home from hospital because they think time is bad for it or rather they would have to face many ill things in life. Some will not get out of their houses till their time comes. (But if called for a job interview to be present at a particular time wil they wait till their time comes?) NAZLY CASSIM - Colombo 1.
On short responses to long letters I was happy and amused to read the reply of the new Minister of the Interior (John Amaratunga) to a letter from the President. The reply has several merits: it is a short reply to a very long letter of seven pages; it is extremely well-worded with some significant phrases, ideas and quotations ("consensual governance", "judgment requires finesse and balance" and "a trained restraint would not be amiss".) what is left unsaid is perhaps more important than what is overtly expressed; and it is a cogent and effective response not without humour, which is a healthy element of life and politics. One hopes the new Government will follow its own stated guidelines! Attlee - Laski The correspondence related above brings to mind some other similar instances. Clement Attlee became prime minister designate of the UK when the Labour Party under his leadership defeated Whinstone Churchill's Conservative Party in 1945. However, the chairman of the Labour Party, the don and author Harold Laski had other ideas. He wrote a very long letter giving reasons why Attlee should give way to another person in order to properly implement party policy as seen by Laski. Laski received a curt and suitable one-sentence reply. "I have received your letter dated..., the contents of which have been noted". Nehur - Bose Jawaharlal Nehru received a letter from the formidable Subhas Chandra Bose in March, 1939. It was an angry and vituperative letter of accusation. Nehru's short response was gentle and crushing. "It is not easy to answer a letter which runs into 27 typed sheets. Your letter is essentially an indictment of my conduct and an investigation into my failings. It is, as you will well realise, a difficult and embarrassing task to have to reply to such an indictment. But so far as the failings are concerned, or many of them at any rate, I have little to say. I plead guilty to them, well realising that I have the misfortune to possess them. But I am a dull subject to discuss, especially at the tail end of an inordinately long letter. Let us leave it at this, that I am an unsatisfactory human being who is dissatisfied with himself and the world, and whom the petty world he lives in does not particularly like". I will conclude with a comment on the recent budget speech of the Minister of Finance, Choksy. I have no wish to enter the hot debate on it. However, it is noteworthy for its brevity. It is also short on vituperation and recrimination, in which some previous holders of the post excessively indulged. NOEL FERNANDO -Dehiwala
The rent Act of 1972 and the plight of tenants The Rent Act of 1972 gave protection to tenants of houses built prior to 1941 of which the standard rent was under Rs. 100 p.m. with the proviso that the Housing Commissioner should give alternate accommodation if such tenants are to be evicted. The standard rent is calculated on the rates payable. As a result of the rates being increased by the Local Bodies every five years, the rents of these houses have risen to over Rs. 100 p.m. irrespective of the condition of the premises, leaving the tenants in a dilemma. Do we still enjoy the protection given in the Rent Act of 1972 or are we now, after 30 years, left vulnerable to the harassment of the landlord? God help us if it is set. Hundreds of tenants are caught up in this web, and their survival is at stake if the roof over their head is blown off. The Minister of Housing should give his mind to solve this human problem with lightening speed - food, clothing and shelter are the basic needs of a person. He should take positive steps to remedy the situation with a moral sense of right and wrong. It is a question of siding the Needy or the Greedy. It is common knowledge that houses are blatantly in the Black Market. It would be feasible to explore the following possibilities with least harm to either tenant or landlord: 1. Increase the ceiling of Rs. 100 p.m. stipulated in the Act of 1972 to Rs. 1000 p.m. thereby enabling the landlord to receive a higher rent whilst the tenant continues to enjoy the protection given in the Act of 1972, or 2. Make it law that all tenants should pay the rent as specified by the Local Body in the column "Estimated Monthly Rental Value" of the Statutory Notice of Assessment issued every five years. This would put a stop to the black marketing of houses or. 3. The Eviction of Tenants should be considered a gross violation of human rights, Eviction should be only in cases of persistent non payment of rent. H.T.- Colombo 8
|
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
