Charitable trust hospitals employee - after retirement trustee did not pay a gratuity or PF stating we did not deduct any PF

Thank you for your responses sir,as of today the charitable trust hospital gave us graduity on the basis of basic salary of 30k,sir as you mentioned that incentive should be included For the calculation of graduity,but the trust did not and paid about 4lac in graduity for 24 years of service of my father. Also sir my father joined in 1995 with basic salary of 5500 which gradually increased to 30k till his retirement .and the contract says 50% will be paid as remuneration above the basic salary. So should we ask for grauity again ,and also was it ok to not cut the pf in 1995 on 5500 of salry"¿. Also the trust did cut tds of 30-50k every month from the income.if we have to file a case please suggest whom should we consult in my small town.thank you sir

50% of the operation charges were paid on above the basic salary sir as my father is a general surgeon.

Please tell us under which section of Income Tax Act they deduct the tax. If it is as per section 192, it is a proof that he was paid the entire amount by way of salaries and allowances and whereas they had deducted it u/s 194J the amount should have been accounted as Professional Charges. You can also verify the TDS report. If it is Form 16 then the amount shown will be salary and whereas if it is Form 16A then it should be professional charges.

Deduction of Rs 30 to 50 thousand per month by way of TDS shall mean that his entire remuneration was taken as salary paid. had it been Professional Charges, it would be 10%. For a monthly remuneration of Rs 1,40,000, the professional charges should be around Rs 14000. (it shall be even less than 14000 because the rate if 10% for the amount of professional charges paid over and above Rs 30000) At the same time, if paid by way of salary, the TDS can be around 35000 to 45000.

Since the TDS certificate is a proof which declares the income of the employee by the employer himself, it would help you to find out on which amount should they calculate gratuity.
Another thing very relevant is that if Doctor was following a timing applicable to other hospital staff, had applied for leaves whenever he required a leave, and was paid an incentive on the basis of the number of patients attended, then there is a scope for reopening the case by approaching the Labour officials or appealing to the appellate authority.

I would like to get the opinion of Umakanthan Sir also.

Thank you for your prompt reply sir,the trustee maintain a wages register in which they show basic salary as 30k and they write incentive(50% operation charges paid to us) and deduction of TDS with pencil ,in second last column they show total amount -also writen with pencil and last column it shows final salary 30k.and they take signature on this of the employees with stamp. In IT return they do show entire paid salary of 1,40k after deduction of TDS in form 16 part a and b evrerymonth.but when it comes to graduity calculation they show us the wages register my father signed in which ,they Erased words written with pencil.also please comment on PF eligibility in this case sir.

This is clear case of maladjustments. You are not expected to write anything in a wage/salary register with pencil. When they have deducted Tax on the entire amounts, and that too u/s 192 of the IT Act, that itself shows that his salary was 1.4 lakhs per month.

Regarding PF, when your father joined the hospital some 24 years back the salary should be above Rs 6500 (5500 + 50% of operation charges). When we debate that total earnings including the operation charges or incentive should qualify for gratuity, the sm should apply to PF also. Obviously, on 1st Sept 2014, when the threshold limit was increased from Rs 6500 to Rs 15000, also the salary would have been ore than Rs 15000. As such he would not come under the PF brackets. If we say that his basic salary was only Rs 5500 or less than Rs 15000 (as on 1-9-2014) then our demand for gratuity on total remuneration would fail.