Income tax relief on LTC to non-Central govt staff

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 29

The Centre has decided to extend income-tax (IT) exemption for the payment of cash equivalent of LTC fare to non-Central Government employees.

Non-Central government employees mean all state governments, PSUs, banks and private sector.

The government had earlier allowed payment of cash allowance equivalent to LTC fare only to Central Government employees subject to fulfillment of certain conditions.

The legislative amendment to the provisions of the IT Act will be proposed in due course.

Accordingly, the payment of cash allowance, subject to maximum of Rs 36,000 per person as deemed LTC fare per person (round trip) to non-Central government employees will be allowed IT exemption subject to  fulfilment of certain conditions, stated an official news release.

There were two main reasons for this exception. The first was in view of the pandemic and resultant nationwide lockdown, a number of employees are not able to avail of LTC in the current block of 2018-21. Second, this step will incentivise consumption, thus giving a boost to consumption expenditure.