Parliamentary Panel says Tata Trust broke laws to obtain income tax exemption

A parliamentary panel struck a Tata trust for allegedly abusing laws to obtain an income tax (IT) exemption for its $ 100 million grants to Harvard Business School and University of Ottawa projects. Cornell University. IT department to probe these alleged infringements by trust.

In its report to Parliament on Thursday, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said: "The committee therefore wants a group of experts from the income tax department to be able to be constituted to investigate violations committed by Tata trusts again, with a view to developing a procedure for a correct and systematic badessment of such trusts. "

Tata trusts, on the other hand, refuted the charges, saying that there were no violations and all the subsidies made by them were in accordance with laws. The PAC, led by Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, said the Tata Education and Development Trust's (TEDT) contributions to the two US institutes were not in compliance with Indian IT laws

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Prior to the notification, the Central Direct Tax Council (CBDT) had rejected the trusts exemption request in 2014, stating that there was no international welfare when the India's interests were served. by these funds. "There was no reason to overturn the decision made in 2014, in November 2015 … as there was no change in the provisions of the law (income tax) nor the purpose exemption granted has undergone a change in order to attract The CPC has stated that the badessments already decided before the publication of the ordinance of the CBDT have been reopened under the Article 154 of the law, which was irregular.

by TEDT in eight rounds since 2009- 10. They were also spent on the construction of a named building, Tata Hall, at Harvard Business School

"Exempt public charity money is channeled out of the country to finance According to the report, the construction of" Tata Hall "at Harvard was not a charity or a good be international in the country. "which India was interested

The report indicated that the exemption granted by the Central Direct Taxes Board (CBDT) to TEDT was not in accordance with Indian IT laws

"Given the repeated nature of these violations, these trusts (Tata Trust). In a statement, the Tatas said that the development of education in India is their main goal and that they have always given their support to education. to the cause. "In the last two years, the Trusts have spent more than $ 2.5 billion on educational development in India," the statement said.

Tata Trusts also stated that institutions such as the Tata Institute, the Indian Institute of Science and the Tata Institute of Basic Research have all been historically established by the Trusts for the cause of the building of the nation.