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 objectives of the organisation. However, Mander told Scroll that this was among the objectives that Aman Biradari listed while seeking income tax exemption under Section 12A.
The bureaucrat-turned-activist said that the organisation was determined to continue its work despite the Income Tax Department’s action.
“We have worked with a large number of violence-hit people across the country, including survivors of the 2020 Delhi violence and the ethnic conflict in Manipur,” he told Scroll. “We will not let this come in our way.”
Mander was referring to the riots that broke out in North East Delhi between February 23 and February 26, 2020, after protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act triggered a violent backlash against Muslim demonstrators.
Fifty-three persons were killed and hundreds more injured in the riots. At least 38 of those killed were Muslim.
Manipur has seen ethnic clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities since May 2023. At least 237 persons have died and more than 59,000 persons displaced since the beginning of the clashes.
Aman Biradari is described on its website as a “people’s campaign for a secular, peaceful, just and humane world”.
In March 2023, the Union home ministry recommended that the Central Bureau of Investigation look into alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act by Aman Biradari, according to PTI.
Registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act is mandatory for a non-profit organisation to receive foreign funds.
In February, the central agency filed a first information report against Mander and his research and advocacy organisation Centre for Equity Studies for alleged violations of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
The Central Bureau of Investigation alleged that the Centre for Equity Studies, a trust registered under the Act, had transferred Rs 32.7 lakh, other than salaries and remunerations, from its Foreign Contribution Regulation account to “account of individual(s) during 2020-21 in violation of FCRA, 2010”.
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