sudipto das (S A) 21 February 2012

About house rent: please help

Dear Sir

I work in a Central Govt ( autonomous body) organization. Currently i am staying in Qtr provided by my office. I am paying licence fee, electricity fee, water charges for the said qtr.

MY WIFE WORKS as an Assistant Teacher in some school of West Bengal Govt which is around 60-65 km away from my qtr.

Sir my wife is currently drawing HRA but we are not sure whether she is eligible for HRA according to the rules of WB Govt.

If she is not eligible then is it advisible to stop it immediately?

If so can she atleast claim the licence fee paid by me, from WB Govt?

Does licence fee includes electricity fee+water charges.

Please help us Sir.

sudipta

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2 Replies

k.chandrasekharan (advocate) 22 February 2012

HRA is payable with reference to the place of work and not place of residence. So, there is no conflict in your case.

For income tax purposes, rebate can be claimed only if actual rent is paid at the place of work, which should be more than 10% of the basic pay. Irrespective of actual rent paid, the exemption would be limited to such excess or actual HRA received, whichever is less.

Vineet (Director) 22 February 2012

Please dont fall into all this calculation.

You being a central govt employee are exempt from house perk as you pay the license fee determined by the government. Hence same payment cannot be calculated for deduction in hands of your wife again.

What your wife can claim from WB government is as per terms of employment with the government. If her office is allowing her HRA, that means she is eligible. You have stated that she is staying 50-60 kms from your place, what is the accomodation there? If she is paying any rent there, the same can be claimed against HRA for the purposes of perquisite computation.