The National Committee of the India Fraternity Forum (IFF) has recently appealed to the government of India for the demands of Gulf NRIs (non-resident Indians) to be kept in mind when the Direct Tax Code (DTC) is implemented. The committee has also appealed for the NRI status to be maintained irrespective of the number of days the NRIs stayed in India, as the 3.5 million Gulf NRIs are only overseas contract workers and must not be compared with the NRIs in Europe and the USA. “Though the deferred implementation of the DTC will give an interim relief to the expatriates, there is nothing to be happy about the budget 2012-13, since it does not offer any rehabilitation package for Gulf NRIs who are returning home for good,” said the resolution of the Saudi national committee of the IFF. The committee also urged the government to reinstate the Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident (RNOR) status, which has been deleted in the implementation of the DTC, as Gulf NRIs “virtually deserve it. The government should not forget that it was the NRIs' remittances to India, amounting to 31% of the total remittance, that enabled the economy to remain stable during the global economic crisis,” the committee said. In another resolution, the committee wholeheartedly welcomed the decision of Indian Ambassador Hamid Ali Rao to have elected managing committees for the international Indian schools in Saudi Arabia. The elected body “would bring transparency and accountability to the management of these institutions, which will in turn pave the way for effective financial administration by putting an end to subterfuge contracts executed by the nominated body,” the committee said, adding the body could contribute toward the improvement of these institutions' academic standards. Last year, while the fee hike was being implemented, the IFF submitted a memorandum signed by approximately 10,000 expatriate Indians to the Union minister for External Affairs, with copies sent to the Prime Minister of India, Ambassador and Consul General of India in Jeddah. It requested to have elected managing committees in the international Indian schools in Saudi Arabia, as these are educational institutions aimed at providing quality education to expatriate Indian students. In the Ambassador's speech during the reception given to him by the JeddahIndian community, he reiterated the importance of providing quality education to the students to equip them in facing the challenges of the future. The Higher Board for the schools had then said the fee hike was necessary to develop school infrastructure and to improve academic standards with a highly qualified teaching staff. The IFF, however, has found that a year since, “nothing has improved as this year also thousands of Indian children could not get admission to the International Indian School in Jeddah due to lack of sufficient accommodation.” The national committee meeting was chaired by Aboobacker and attended by the council members Ashraf Morayur, EM Abdullah, Basheer Engapuzha, Abdul Ghani, Moosa Kutty, Faisal.
