Finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, made an announcement on October 12, 2020 of LTC cash voucher scheme for the central government employees. The Income Tax Department, via a press release issued on October 29, 2020, then extended the benefits of the LTC Cash Voucher Scheme to non-central government employees as well, i.e., those employed in the private sector, public sector units, and the state government. The Leave Travel Concession (LTC) cash Voucher scheme was notified by the government in Budget 2021.
What is LTC?
Leave travel concession or LTA is an emolument provided as a component of Salary by the employers to their employees for which they can claim tax exemption if employee themselves and their family travel domestically. This tax benefit is available u/s. 10(15) of Income tax act, and an employee can claim cost of tickets as an exemption for travelling anywhere in India twice in a block of 4 years.
Objective of LTC Cash Voucher Scheme
This scheme was announced to boost consumer demand and to provide tax benefit to individuals who are unable to claim the usual LTC tax benefit due to Covid-related travel restrictions. The LTC Cash Voucher scheme aims to provide other expenditure options to the employees to avail the benefits. It would definitely entail tax savings to the individuals who are getting LTA or LTC from their respective employers. The employees have the option to receive a cash equivalent benefit of LTC fare and related leave encashment without traveling under the LTC scheme.
Who are Eligible?
The LTC cash voucher scheme will be available for central government and PSU employees. However, the finance minister extended this scheme to non-central government employees as well, i.e., those employed in the private sector, public sector units, and the state government.
How Does LTC Cash Voucher Scheme Work?
The cash voucher scheme is in lieu of the LTC benefit. So, before you go on to file the claim you should know that this would only apply to you in the following circumstances:
- This exemption would be available for F.Y 2020-21.
- The scheme applies to your LTC benefit for the block of 2018 – 2021.
- You have not exhausted the LTC exemption for the current block i.e 2018-21 as benefit taken over here shall be considered as usage of 1 trip (out of two allowable).
- The cash voucher scheme is available for the money spend on any family member(s) eligible for LTC benefit.
- LTC Cash Voucher scheme is available in the old tax regime. Further, This scheme benefit is not available to an employee who has exercised an option to pay income tax under new income tax / concessional tax regime.
- Further, the benefits of this special cash voucher scheme will be settled within the current financial year if the invoices of purchases of goods/services are submitted on time.
Conditions to claim benefit under the Scheme
To claim the benefit under the LTC cash voucher scheme, an individual is required to fulfil the following conditions:
- The amount both on account of leave encashment and fare shall be admissible if the employee spends:
- an amount equal to the value of leave encashment and
- an amount 3 times of the cash equivalent of deemed fare
- on the purchase of goods/services attracting GST of 12% or more,
- Purchases must be made during the period between October 12, 2020 and March 31, 2021.
- The payment for the goods/services is mandatorily required to be made through a digital mode including cheque, UPI, etc.
- Invoices must be furnished to an employer containing details of the vendor, GST number and GST amount paid. Invoices in the name of family members can also be submitted.
You will be able to claim the benefits under the scheme only if you fulfill all the above mentioned conditions.
Deemed LTC Fare
The deemed LTC fare for this purpose is as follows:
- Employees who are entitled to business class of airfare: ₹36,000 (per person Round Trip)
- Employees who are entitled to economy class of airfare: ₹20,000 (per person Round Trip)
- Further, the employees who are entitled to Rail of any class: ₹6000 (per person Round Trip)
For example: A maximum tax benefit of LTC fare is INR 36,000 is available per person in case of business class air travel. Thus, for a family of four, the maximum tax benefit that can be claimed is INR 1.44 lakh. Further, to claim the maximum tax benefit, an individual taxpayer will be required to spend INR 4.32 lakh (INR 36,000 X 4 X 3).
Should you opt for it?
This scheme is totally optional and the employees can either choose avail the scheme or opt for the regular LTC in the subsequent years in the block. The benefit is only to the extent of reimbursement in cash of the maximum amount of LTC eligible to them. Those employees who were not planning to avail or have not been able to avail of the the LTC owing to current situation due to Covid-19, have an opportunity to claim LTC cash voucher scheme.
Note: In case employees don’t avail exemption under this Scheme, generally employers either pay it after deducting TDS on it or allow you to carry forward the amount to next year.
Tax Benefits of LTC Cash Voucher Scheme
Besides getting the reimbursement of purchases, the employees also benefit from LTC scheme in terms of tax savings. Although TDS is applicable on leave encashment, but amount which is related to the cash reimbursement of LTC fare in lieu of deemed actual travel shall be allowed as exemption as per existing provisions. Therefore, TDS provision is not applicable on the amount of LTC fare, which is being reimbursed by employer. However, there are still some uncertain or unclear things in terms of the income tax applicability. IT department also issued clarification regarding various queries received relating to this scheme
FAQ
An employee can avail of the scheme in partial, i.e. of the LTC of part of the eligible family. In such situations, LTC scheme benefits will be applicable to the fare left unutilized during the current block year starting from 2018 to 2021.
The reimbursement is based on the production of an invoice with details of GST. As far as possible, the claim should be made and settled well before 31st March 2021 to avoid any last-minute rush and resultant lapse.
There is no such prescribed format. The employees only need to submit an application to convey the desire to avail the LTC scheme benefits. If they need an advance for the purchase, the same is to be mentioned in the application.
As mentioned earlier, since this scheme was originally introduced only for CG employees and later extended to all sectors, most of private sector employers would have deducted TDS on LTA component of Salary. In such cases employees can claim deduction at the time of filing of their ITR, provided all the specified conditions mentioned above are fulfilled along with GST invoice as proof of payment made.
Hello @MONU_KR ,
An employee can claim an LTC exemption once he fulfills the required criteria.
You can claim the available LTC exemption while filing Income Tax Return if the car is purchased before 31.03.2021. Further, you will have to retain the original bills to produce them as proof to IT Department on demand.
However, the reimbursement shall be based on the production of the invoice to the employer with details of GST. As far as possible, the claim should be made and settled well before 31st March 2021.
Hope this helps.
Ma’am,
Thanks for considering my query and thanks for the resolution. But Ma’am As I have mentioned my company has stopped taking claims from 10.03.2021 and they have stopped the online portal for ltc cash voucher claim itself.
I have asked them to consider my case as the scheme is till 31.03.2021 But my company has told me that as per corporate guideline they can’t do it now and I have to put it in ITR.
I have also checked ITR utility excel sheet of FY2019-20 downloaded from IT website, in that as per sec 10(5) no place for description etc against the column where one can provide invoice no etc.
Also your prompt response last line bothers me -“As far as possible claim should be made and settled well before 31st March 2021”.In my case claim settlement is not possible, but for sure my invoice date will be 21.03.2021-24.03.2021 possibly as my car loan processing is u/p and may take 2-3 days.
Your expert solution/advice is highly appreciated as appx Rs 108000/- is on stake from my pocket.
Thanks for sparing your time to assist and advise me.
Regards,
Monu Gulshan
Hello @MONU_KR
What your employer suggested is about claiming exemption of LTC while filing ITR. That can be claimed at the time of filing of ITR.
But the settlement of the amount has to be done only by an employer and for that, you have to put the claim to the employer. You can request the employer to accept the claim since it is to be done before March 31, 2021.
Further, the new utilities are yet to come which may have a place to claim this exemption.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the reaponse.
What I could get from your response that if Employer doesn’t provide you claim in my case the date i.e 10.03.2021 has already passed. Through Direct ITR It can not be claimed.
Hello @MONU_KR
Yes, the claim settlement can only be done by the employer. You cannot directly claim it through ITR.
While filing ITR, you can only claim the exemption.
Ma’am,
With our conversation I came to the point that I will not be able to get LTC cash voucher scheme on my car purchase despite govt last date 31.03.21 but our company last date 10.03.21 and My invoice date would be 24.03.21.
Sadly companies internal last date is way earlier than govt last date.
Hope govt gives some route through utility.
Kindly update if some thing comes up for this type of case.
Thanks
Hi @MONU_KR
Surely will let you know if there is any update for this type of case.
Thanks for you responses.
I have decided to go through itr route if quicko has some facility for my case, I will provide the CAR invoice details with GST at the tiem of ITR.
One more query in regard to ltc cash scheme, Leave travel allowance which will be non taxable will be 108000*3=324000 or 108000(considering a family of 3 members) And what will be the actual benefits for 30 percent tax bracket old regime (32400 or 97200).
KIndly assist for my query.
Regards,
Monu Gulsahn
Hi @MONU_KR
Calculation of exemption leave encashment will involve other details as well like Pay level, basic salary, the category you fall into, etc. Further, the benefit of LTC shall be 30% of LTC that is exempt in your case.
thanks Ma’am,
Please let me know if quicko can assist me or file my itr to avail ltc cash benefits as I have purchase car on 24.03.2021 and my company not accepting claim from 10.03.2021 onwards.
Regards,
Monu Gulshan