Income tax exemption for activist Harsh Mander’s NGO cancelled
The bureaucrat-turned-activist, however, said that his organisation was determined to continue its work despite the department’s action.
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Tax authorities on Wednesday cancelled the registration of non-governmental organisation Aman Biradari under Section 12A of the Income Tax Act, its founder and human rights activist Harsh Mander told Scroll. This means that the NGO will no longer be exempt from paying income tax.
Mander said that the Income Tax Department had first issued a notice to the organisation on cancelling the registration about three months ago. The NGO responded to it about one-and-a-half months ago, he added.
“However, in the order cancelling the registration, the department has not responded to any of the points we made explaining our stand,” the activist said.
One of the grounds that the Income Tax Department cited was that the NGO did not provide the permanent account numbers, or PAN, of some persons who donated money to it as part of a crowdfunding drive during the Covid-19 pandemic, Mander told Scroll.
The money from the crowdfunding drive was used to distribute food to underprivileged people during the pandemic.
Mander, however, claimed that the organisation was not legally required at the time to provide the PAN numbers of those who donated money as part of the crowdfunding campaign.
The second reason that the department cited was that creating communication material on interfaith harmony was not among the stated...
