PUNE, MARCH 13: The annual accounts and statutory audit report for the year 1996-97 has raised serious objections towards the University of Pune's gross violation of provisions of certain Central and State Acts including Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) and the Income Tax Act resulting into payment of penalties running into lakhs of rupees.The varsity's sheer negligence in availing of major concessions from the Pune Municipal Corporation, Pune Telecom Department, Sales Tax Act and Central Excise has also highlighted the total lack of financial discipline thereby incurring a substantial loss. The audit report will be presented at the varsity's senate meeting on March 17 and 18 which will also approve the budget.
Not only has the University failed to take the permission of the Reserve Bank of India for several hundred thousands of US dollars accepted from foreign students for Entrance test ($500) and medical test ($50) per student, but has also not intimated the Central government about the receiptof contributions from foreign countries received by the various departments.
By violating various provisions of the Income Tax Act such as Sections 192, 194 C, 201 (IA), 271 C, 194 J and 194 C, the auditor has drawn attention to the University's payment of penalty of Rs 1,94,148 to the Income Tax department on account of improper deductions effected from the salaries of employees and contractual payments made to various persons in the past. The varsity has yet to recover Rs 38,410 as agreed from the concerned employees and contractors. The University is exempted from paying octroi duty to the PMC. However it has not maintained proper records of certificates issued to the suppliers while availing octroi exemption. Under Article 285 (2) of the constitution of India no legal authority can levy tax on buildings funded out of Central Budget allocation money. However the University is paying tax to the corporation on the buildings constructed with the help of funding agencies like UGC, DST and DBT among others.Again the varsity is paying educational cess on all buildings except teaching departments when it is exempted from doing so.
While the varsity has no record of list of buildings on which taxes have been paid or not, it has made an ad-hoc payment of Rs 15 lakh against the bill of Rs 67 lakh for water consumption one newly traced pipeline with effect from 1985. In effect the University should examine whether the corporation bill is correct or otherwise, the report states adding that the varsity was paying a large amount disproportionate to its water consumption.
In another glaring discrepancy, the report has pointed out that individual accounts of each funding agency has not been maintained. A sum of Rs 6,97,92,940 is receivable from funding agencies. However there is a loss of interest due the non-recovery of this sum is huge. In addition to which several utilisation certificates have not been submitted to the funding agencies for clearing the expenditure amount incurred in various research projects.
Inthe audit report its clearly stated that the University accounts are partially computerised on basis of an accounting system designed by CMC Ltd. Adequacy of internal controls provided by the designer in the overall working of the system has yet to be established. Also there are no Electronic Data Processing personnel allocated for carrying out work in the accounts section.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
