It is lump sum payment made by an employer to an employee in consideration of his past service when the employment is terminated. It is paid for long and meritorious services rendered by an employee. With enactment of Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, gratuity payment has become mandatory and in case of non application of gratuity Act, the employee can claim gratuity under terms of contract of employment.

The Payment of Gratuity Act 1972:- Gratuity is a voluntary Payment made by the employer to the employee in recognition of continuous, meritorious services and sincere efforts by the employee towards the organization.It is governed under the Payment of Gratuity Act 1972.It is an Act to provide for a scheme for the payment of gratuity to employees engaged in factories, mines, Oilfields, plantations, ports, railway companies, and shops or other establishments.

In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-clause (iii) of clause (10) of section 10 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), and in supersession of Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, notification no. S.O. 287 dated the 20th January, 1999 the Central Government, having regard to the maximum amount of any gratuity payable to its employees, hereby specifies ten lakh rupees as the limit for the purpose of the said sub-clause in relation to the employees who retire or become incapacitated prior to such retirement or die on or after the 24th day of May, 2010 or whose employment is terminated on or after the said date.

Meaning of Gratuity :-Gratuity refers to the emoluments received by an employee from his employer in gratitude for the services rendered. Such sum can be paid on retirement, resignation, superannuation, death or disablement. Under the Gratuity Act, the sum can be paid only after an employee has rendered continuous service of not less than five years. Exceptions being termination of employment on account of death/disablement.

In India, the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 (Act) requires entities with ten or more employees to pay gratuity benefit to their employees at the time of termination of employment. The act also provides that if an entity is covered under the act because its number of employees exceeded ten on a particular day, it will continue to be covered under the act even if its number of employees fall below ten subsequently.

S.O. 1217(E). In exercise of power by sub section (2) of section 1 of the Payment of Gratuity (Amendments) Act, 2010(15 of 2010), the central Government hereby appoints the 24thday of May, 2010 the on which said act will come into force.

The government notified the Payment of Gratuity (Amendment) Act, 2010 on May 18, 2010, which increases the limit of gratuity payment to employees in the specified sectors/establishments covered under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 (“Gratuity Act”). After the amendment, these employees are eligible to receive gratuity up to Rs 10,00,000, which was earlier restricted to Rs 3,50,000. Thus, crores of workers will be benefited in establishments covered by the Gratuity Act.

The Union finance minister had introduced the Finance Bill, 2010 in the Lok Sabha on February 26, 2010 and proposed to tax 8 new services. On May 8, 2010, the President gave her consent to the Finance Bill and thus the Finance Act, 1994 (14 of 2010) has come into effect from that date. SERVICE TAX IS BEING IMPOSED ON THE FOLLOWING SPECIFIED SERVICES:

Parliament on Wednesday approved enhancing the gratuity limit for employees from Rs3.5 lakh to Rs10 lakh as also the exemption threshold from income tax on it. Parliament on Wednesday approved enhancing the gratuity limit for employees from Rs3.5 lakh to Rs10 lakh as also the exemption threshold from income tax on it.

A bill to raise the ceiling of gratuity for employees to Rs 10 lakh from Rs 3.5 lakh was passed by the Lok Sabha without discussion today. The House, which witnessed an opposition furore over the 2G spectrum “scam” and reports about alleged involvement of a central minister in an illegal arms deal, also adopted the Employees’ State Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2009 without any debate.