Jet employees get notices from I-T department over unpaid dues, says report

Several Jet Airways employees have received notices from the Income Tax Department recently for unpaid tax and penalty ranging from Rs 10,000 to over Rs 4 lakh, The Times of India reported.

The notices for employees who served as engineers, pilots and general managers pertain to unpaid income tax on account of December 2018 salary, while for others, it is for salaries earned between December 2018 and February, said the report.

Jet, which shut its operations in April this year, did not pay its pilots and engineers from Jan onwards while others were not paid for March and April, the report noted.

"Most of us have been jobless for the past six months. Our families have been facing financial hardships. The last salary I received was for December, almost a year ago. Though I received a tax-deducted salary, the government wants me to pay tax again on that salary, along with a penalty. This has to be done within 30 days of receipt of the I-T notice. It's stressful," an employee was quoted as saying in the report.

However, Jet Airways officials who spoke to the paper, claimed that the problem is technical. "Jet Airways hasn't filed tax returns after November 2018. Though it deducted tax for salaries paid between December 2018 and February 2019, and credited the deducted tax amount to the government as well, the same doesn't reflect in the I-T department's computerized system because the returns haven't been filed electronically. Hence, the automated notices have been served," a Jet official was quoted as saying in the report.