During the Month

Date : 21st June,2010

WELCOME TO THE LAND OF THE MAHATMA‘s GUJARAT

&

BLIND PEOPLE’S ASSOCIATION

Vastrapur, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

The Blind People’s Association was privileged to have a visiting team of RAJYA SABHA MEMBERS of Parliament who had come to make a study on granting exemption to certain categories of charitable organization from payment of Income Tax on receipt of anonymous donation. 

 

 

The team consisted of the following: q       Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Chairman q       Smt. Viplove Thakur q       Shri Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi q       Shri Moinul Hassan q       Shri Bhagwati Singh q       Shri Sabir Ali

They were accompanied by Mr. Ashok Kumar Sahoo, Deputy Director, Rajyasabha Secretariat, Parliament of India.  Mr. Gurpreet Singh and Mr. Atulesh Jindal, Commissioners of Income Tax in Ahmedabad were also present along with their Senior Commissionerate staff. 

 

The team was greeted by the following Trustees and Officials of Blind People’s Association

q       Mrs. Nandini Munshaw, General Secretary

q       Mrs. Sunita Thakor, Treasurer

q       Mr. F.J. Porwal, Secretary

q       Dr. Nitin Shah, Executive Committee Member

q       Mrs. Usha Atulbhai, Executive Committee Member

q       Mr. Natubhai Patel, Donor

q       Mr. Mrs. Khajanchi, Donors

q       Dr. Bhushan Punani, Executive Director

q       Mr. Harish Panchal, Director Training

q       Mrs. Nandini Rawal,  Project Director

1. Presentation on Activities of BPA:

The MPs were taken to the Arvind Narottam Lalbhai Convention Centre for a PowerPoint presentation on the Blind People’s Association activities and philosophy followed by a presentation on BPA’s opinion on payment of income tax on anonymous donations.  The gist of the discussions is as given below.

BPA is managed by a team of professional which is guided by an active Trust Body which is present every day at the campus. The BPA has a gamut of activities for all categories of disabled people ranging from prevention, relief, rehabilitation, and placement. The BPA has modern training programmes for disabled people and involves the society at large. BPA gets donations from non- resident Indians, international funding agencies, local, state and national Government.

From small donors, BPA gets donations on the basis of emotional appeal, religious sentiments on the death of the loved one, spiritual connotation. A standard appeal seeking donation for providing meals to blind students inviting family members to visit organization and fix date for meals

All donations given to the BPA are given receipts and there are very few donations, which are anonymous. 

However, there are lots of smaller organizations, which do not have a large number of donors who give for specific causes. 

These institutions raise funds through events such as Flag Day, Rallies or specific street programmes where people drop in funds in boxes.  These are anonymous donors who give very small amounts.  These programmes are run by various organizations like Red Cross, Army, Hospitals and Disability Organizations.  The State Governments give permission for running these programmes.  Some organizations also raise funds from charity boxes or donation boxes kept at prominent place.  Here too the donors are anonymous. 

The BPA feels that such donations raised through recognized public events which have been approved by appropriate authority should not be considered “Anonymous Donations and thus not levied income tax. 

The BPA is very transparent in its operations and all its donations are clearly shown on the BPA Website on a day-to-day basis.  All donations are also shown in the BPA Annual Report.  The BPA website also carries a section on Social Audit

2. BPA Submissions to Members of the Delegation:

Our response to Rajya Sabha petition on anonymous donations

• We support the petition of Jainacharaya regarding exemption to proposed institutions
• The term “institutions related to handicapped people” should not be changed to schools for the handicapped” – the original term “institutions” should be retained
• All fund raising events which are organized with the involvement of public and with the permission of appropriate authority should not considered as “anonymous donations” and should be exempt from income tax
• We support the concept of “partially religious – partially charitable”
• Hospitals run completely for charitable purposes and under the state or national programmes and where income is used for the captioned objective should also be granted exemption under section 115bbc. For example – eye hospital run by a charitable organization under national program on control of blindness should be granted exemption
• We however support tax on anonymous donations above a certain level and where a source of donation can not be identified and it is not through small contributions made in a public view and is not for purposed outlined in the petition
• We shall be pleased to make these submissions in any required format or any expected instrument and to submit and desired authority

3. Question from the Members of Visiting Delegations

Q 1: What are the Sources of Income:

 

The BPA also clarified that of the total income of the organization the break up is as follows.

30% - Government

10% - Internal

30% - Public and Corporate Donations

10% - Contribution from Sale of products

20% - Foreign contribution

Q.2: What are the Rehabilitation Programme of BPA?

 

The visiting MPs also asked questions about the rehabilitation programs for disabled people at the BPA.  They were shown photographs about the various self-employment and employment options made available to disabled people by the BPA.  The BPA has multifarious activities with focus upon special education, inclusive education, early intervention, community based rehabilitation, vocational training, micro-credit, self employment, employment & placement services, community based rehabilitation, vocational counseling, provision of Braille books, assistive devices, education devices, assessment and evaluation, Human Resource Development, net working of institutions, leadership training, resource mobilization.  It was also explained that most outstanding programmes of the organization include a School of Physiotherapy, Industrial Training Institute, Technology Lab, Resource Centre, eye hospital, inclusive schools, vocational training centre and technical school.

 

Question No. 3:  Extent of Anonymous Donation Received by  BPA: 

 

Most of our District Branches run under the auspices of National Association for the Blind on an average receive upto 10% of their donation as anonymous donation mostly from All India Flag Day for the Blind.

 

Question No.4:  Nature of Foreign Contribution Received by BPA and Management Thereof:

 

The BPA and its associated organizations receive foreign contributions from the following organizations.

·          CBM, Germany

·          Hilton Perkins International, USA

·          Australian Aid, Australia

·          India-America Education Foundation, USA

·          Global Giving, USA

·          Ma Krupa Trust, USA

 During the year 2008-09, the BPA and its associated organization received a foreign contribution of Rs. 1,54,98,285.

 

The BPA maintains a separate Bank account and utilizes the money for the purpose for which it has been released; it submits annual returns to the Ministry of Home Affairs. 

 

Question No. 5: Maximum Amount Received from one person as anonymous donation

 

The BPA generally receives anonymous donation upto Rs. 5100 as that is the amount of donation required for providing one time meals to our 230 blind students. The maximum donation BPA received as anonymous donation from single individual was Rs. 1,00,000 which BPA refused to accept.

 

Question No. 6: System of issuing Receipts:

 

Each and every donor who provides donation in cash or kind, from India or abroad is provided official stamp receipt for each and every donation. Each donation is accounted for in the respective Head of donation. 

 

Question No. 7: How BPA can help other organizations in other States:

BPA will be pleased to provide orientation and training to staff from other institutes.  It will be pleased to organize visit of concerned officials to BPA.  BPA will also be pleased to provide technical support to staff of disability development.

 

Question No. 8: What are the views of BPA on 10 areas identified for granting exemption from tax on anonymous donation:

 

The BPA explained that the term institute for the handicapped should be retained instead of school for the handicapped as mentioned in the Rajyasabha note.

 

Question No.9: Role of BPA in providing Medical Aid in case of cochlear implant:

 

The BPA has been working as an intermediary for encouraging such support.  BPA motivates donor community and the corporate support for this purpose. BPA thus support such initiatives and would like to support such services further.

 

Question No.10: Is the fund released for the patients from the PM/CM Relief Fund is considered as an anonymous donation?

 

BPA explained as such contributions are made directly by the Government to the concerned hospitals, these are considered medical reimbursement to the patient and not anonymous donation to motivated organizations – hence not taxable.

 

Question No. 11:  Should income tax on anonymous donations be reduced from 30% to 5%?

 

We understand that the Government of India is still maintaining a tax level of 30% on all anonymous donations; the legal provision is to exempt anonymous up to 5% of total donation of respective year or Rs. 1,00,000 whatsoever is higher. The submission of BPA is to exempt all anonymous donations made to 10 selected Charities or such anonymous donations which have been raised through systematic activities.

 

After this discussion the members of the delegation paid a visit to School of Physiotherapy and Deaf-blind Unit in the institute.

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