The Pune Bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has allowed registration under Section 2(15) of the Income Tax Act 1961, as the distribution of food to poor people and spending on cremation of the diseased during the Covid 19 was done by the trust.
The assessee, Kanojiya Pardeshi Dhobi was a very small trust and was established in 2017. Assessee had done services of providing food to poor people during the Covid-19 period. Assessee had also helped the poor and incurred expenses for the funerals of people who died during Covid-19. Therefore, M N Kulkarni, on behalf of the assessee submitted that the activities of the assessee were eligible and hence, the assessee was eligible for Registration under section 12AA of the Act.
He also submitted that the assessee’s objects were charitable and the Commissioner of Income Tax CIT(E) had rejected the application only on the ground that evidence submitted by the assessee was inadequate. This could not be the ground for rejection during the proceedings, and the CIT(E) was supposed to verify the objects of the Trust and genuineness of the activities. In this case, the objects were charitable, he had not mentioned anything about the objects of the Trust.
Keyur Patel, appeared on behalf of the revenue.
The two-member Bench of S.S.Godara, (Judicial Member) and Dipak P. Ripote, (Accountant Member) observed that the CIT(E) had accepted the fact that assessee had filed evidences regarding activities. The assessee had claimed that assessee had distributed food to the poor people during the Covid-19 and also the expenditure on the funeral of poor people. We all know that the Pandemic period was a very disturbing period for the entire country. In this scenario, the assessee had distributed food to the poor people and the assessee also spent on cremation of the diseased. These activities were definitely as per the object of the Trust.
The Bench allowed the appeal filed by the assessee holding that the assessee’s activities were charitable in nature as defined in Section 2(15) of the Income Tax Act.
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