Teachers and Staff Welfare Associations of the University of Madras (UoM), a 164-year-old public university, have declared a day-long hunger strike to be held on Friday, February 23. The announcement came after the Income Tax Department froze 37 fixed deposit accounts of the UoM citing unpaid tax dues. Association members have demanded that the Tamil Nadu government intervene and ensure that their salaries are paid. At least Rs 20 crores is needed to settle the salary of the employees in the month of February.
The IT department froze the fixed deposit accounts of the university on February 6 and issued a notice to the State Bank of India (SBI) branch in the University’s Chepauk campus. The notice cited that the UoM has failed to pay Rs 424 crore in tax and penalties, due for the assessment years 2017-2018 to 2020-2021. Earlier this month, the cheques that were issued by the University had bounced.
Association members stated that it would be very difficult to run the institution in this condition and wondered whether they could pay the monthly salary to teachers, staff, and other employees. They urged the state government to intervene as the matter impacts not just the staff, but also over 4000 students and research scholars. They also said that the pension money due to retired staff remains unpaid, along with last month's electricity bill and the remuneration of the professors who evaluated exam papers.
During a press meeting, Association members claimed that the institution is exempt from income tax as it is a government institution. “We have evidence to prove that returns are filed regularly and it would be submitted to the IT department by the auditor”, they said.
Speaking to TNM, Maya Kannan, General Secretary of SC/ST Employees Welfare Association said that the University has not committed any income tax evasion. “The IT department should have given a space to discuss with stakeholders before making such a drastic decision all of a sudden,” he said. When asked whether they had brought the matter before Governor RN Ravi, the defacto chancellor of government-run universities, the Association members responded that they wanted to bring this matter before the state government first.
An institution can be considered a government institution only if it receives 50% of its funds from the government as subsidies and if so, it is subsequently exempted from income tax. For the past few years, due to audit objections, funds from the government have been reduced, and since 2018, the state government has stopped releasing funds for such institutions. The IT department has now asked the University to pay more than Rs 400 crores as tax and penalty, at par with private institutions.