MINUTES OF TSEWA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING HELD AT 0900 HRS ON 14 FEB 2018 AT 143 VAYUPURI, SECUNDERABAD
The following members were present:-
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Rtd) – President
Cmde Sudheer Parakala(Rtd) – Vice President
Col Dr GB Sethi (Rtd) – General Secretary
Lt Col G Parvathesam (Rtd) – Treasurer
Col MK Veeramani(Rtd) – President, Charity Division
H/ Capt B Joseph (Rtd) – Joint Secretary
The President welcomed all to the first Executive Committee weekly meeting. Hence forth on every Wednesday there will be EC meetings, and alternate Wednesdays the Core Committee meetings will be held. Executive Committee members are therefore requested to attend the meeting every Wednesday.
Points from the General Secretary
Position of Legal Cases
General Secretary gave the present position of all AFT Cases. However he said that this information is being updated by Mrs Rekha Sekhri, Administrator of TSEWA Blog daily. He said the cases which are ready in HQ TSEWA after scrutiny of all legal documents will be dispatched to Brig SKS Rana VSM soon. He gave the break down details to include legal case in brief, number of petitioners service wise etc of the following cases: AFT 1 C, AFT 20, AFT 21, AFT 28 B, AFT 29.
He said that the reservists’ case (AFT 17) is critical, and there is hardly any progress. It was therefore decided that without wasting any time and waiting for any more documents TSEWA should send documents to Brig SKS Rana, VSM, President, Legal Division for filing in AFT Delhi.
Action to be taken by all concerned
Awareness Camp at Punjab and Lucknow
General Secretary informed that TSEWA team will be going to Punjab and Lucknow in Mar 2018 but would be back for the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on 25 Mar 2018. He wanted the team to discuss with Brig SKS Rana VSM, Col Ajit Rana and others about filing our AFT Cases at AFT Lucknow, AFT Chandigarh, and also at other regional AFTs which are functioning. He wanted to identify at least two or three more advocates who accept class action suits.
At this stage a call was made to Col Ajit Singh Rana, President, TSEWA North Zone, Delhi NCR and Haryana. Col Ajit Rana informed that he contacted Maj (Mrs) Tomar an Ex-JAG branch officer who has expressed her willingness to take up cases of TSEWA. Mrs Jyoti Singh is very busy with her own cases. Though he tried to contact her, it has become very difficult to get an appointment with her.
The Executive Committee advised Col Ajit Singh Rana to have detailed discussion with Brig SKS Rana, VSM and Maj (Mrs) Tomar and finalise terms and conditions
President said that since Brig SKS Rana VSM is our Single Point Contact for all AFT cases, we should leave it to him to decide in which AFT the next case will be filed and who will be our advocate for that case. Before that we will request him to go to other regional AFTs, meet our local Presidents / contact persons, meet the practicing advocates in those AFTs and finalise all terms and conditions keeping what we have concluded with Brig Anil Srivastava VSM. The outcome will be discussed in the NEC meeting on 25 Mar 2018 for a final ruling.
Action to be taken by all concerned
Points from Treasurer
Auditing of Accounts
Treasurer said that he has asked the Chartered Accountant to come to audit our accounts. He said that in the next meeting he will inform the correct position of our accounts. Before NEC the complete details will be ready and all can be informed about the same. He also said that he has fixed another accountant in the place of the present one in our office as his services were not found to be satisfactory. He will take over from the present incumbent next month.
Action to be taken by Treasurer
Points from the President
President explained about the trip to Punjab from 13 to 16 Mar 2018 and Lucknow from 17 to 20 Mar 2018. He said that he will make use of this trip along with Brig SKS Rana VSM and Col Ajit Rana and discuss with Col Dharam Raj Singh, our contact person in Lucknow and Col Yogi Sharma, a practicing advocate in AFT Lucknow. He requested Treasurer and President Charity Division to give him MS PP slides showing a photo with name of beneficiary, address, purpose of financial assistance made, date and location. He also requested a MS PP slide be made giving the summary of financial assistance made in the financial year 2017 – 18. This will help us in explaining the audience at three locations in Punjab (Bhogpur Silwan on 13 Mar, Nawan Shehr on 14 Mar and Garh Shankar on 15 Mar and from 17 to 19 Mar at various locations around Lucknow) the charitable activities of TSEWA.
The President stressed that TSEWA has got large number of members due to awareness camps and legal cases so far. But we are not very sure how these two will get us more members in the years to come. Seeing the Salem experience of 26 Jan 2018 when you give out financial assistance in the venue, then more veterans and family pensioners get a different but profound impression of TSEWA. Our membership and donations will go up in subsequent years due to charitable activities undertaken.
TSEWA got kudos for the timely action taken to sensitize the environment about poor plight of Capt Vijendra Singh Gurung, a 1971 war hero who unfortunately became a Prisoner of War. We also received about Rs 5.50 lakhs as donations for rehabilitation of Capt Gurung. We have already sent Rs 10,000 per month for the months of January and February 2018 through Brig Rajendra Singh Rawat, President, TSEWA, Uttarakhand.
Even if we are able to identify two beneficiaries in each of the locations in Punjab and Lucknow and hand over the financial assistance, then and there, it will do wonders for TSEWA. It should be known all over India and abroad TSEWA is the only organization which is doing charitable activities.
These charitable activities will help TSEWA to get 80(G) benefit for donors who will get 50% exemption of income tax of their donations to us. More donations will pour in during subsequent years if we get 80(G) benefit from Commissioner of Income Tax by Oct 2018.
The President informed that at times the Ex-Servicemen may not be able to pay legal fees. The same can be paid by TSEWA for such ESMs and this can be shown as charity.
Points from President Charity Division
Col MK Veeramani, President, Charity Division informed that, of late, all the recommendations from out station members are very sketchy. There is no letter from the persons, no letter from the educational institutions for financial assistance for college / school fees, no mark sheets, no Aadhaar Cards, no details of address, telephone numbers, no photographs or videos, no letter from the hospital for medical assistance, no bank details, no clear recommendation about the money to be given and for how long. For sports persons’ no letter from the coach, no detail about the level of achievement, etc. So he has made a check list and sent the same to all for strict compliance. Hence he wanted President to inform them whenever he speaks to them about this check list and then ask them to recommend as per that. Lot of time is being spent in seeking more documents, more clarifications etc. It becomes extremely difficult for the Charity Division to justify dispensing of financial assistance. We have audit department who carry out internal audit every quarter and Chartered Accountant who carries out our yearly audit. We also have to satisfy the Income Tax Department which gave us exemption from payment of Income Tax under Sec 12(A) of Income Tax Act 1961.
Col MK Veeramani wanted the Treasurer to clearly spell out the actual amount that has to be spent on charity by the end of the financial year 2017 – 18 after taking into consideration the money to be booked on office maintenance, purchase of equipment for the office, salary for the staff, rent for the office, travel expenses incurred for awareness programmes etc. He said as on date we have given more than Rs 7 lakhs as financial assistance since Apr 2017. He wanted to know how much more money is available for charity till 31 Mar 2018.
Cmde Sudheer Parakala said that whatever Income Tax we have paid last year as we did not have benefit of Sec 12(A) on the principal amount is not to be included in this year’s income, but only the interest earned to be included.
Treasurer assured all these points will be clarified with the Chartered Accountant.
It was the opinion of Col MK Veeramani and Cmde Sudheer Parakala that after this Rs 7 lakhs given out as charity not much money will be left for charity. Col Veeramani said that another six cases are with him without complete documents. He has asked the concerned persons to send all the required documents, so that if money is available that can be given to them in this financial year itself. If not it will be carried over to the next year.
General Secretary and Cmde Sudheer Parakala said that we should book the money spent for payment of legal fees to advocates, travel expenditure to consult advocates for legal cases, purchase of some equipments for the legal cases, salary of two clerks who are mainly doing legal cases work, part of rent to the office etc can be booked from the TSEWA – AFT account. The legal fees collected from the petitioners is put in TSEWA – AFT and all expenses for legal cases has to be booked against that.
President was of the view that out of the 85% of the income earned from interest out of Fixed Deposits and general donations should be spent on giving charity as per the restriction laid down by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Exemptions), Hyderabad when he accorded exemption from payment of income tax under Sec 12(A) of IT Act 1961. Charitable activities will bring good name to TSEWA in the years to come.
Cmde Parakala and some more members clarified that Commissioner of Income Tax understands the basic requirement of running an office for all these activities. So major amount need not have to be spent on direct charity only. Any how these points will be clarified from the Auditor and will be discussed in the NEC on 25 Mar 2018.
Treasurer said that all these points will be clarified from the Auditor.
There being no other points, President thanked all members and the meeting ended. The next EC cum CC meeting will be on 21 Feb 2018.
Brig CS Vidyasagar (Rtd)
President, TSEWA
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