Govt fund allocation to NGOs – Online process made mandatory
Granting allocation to NGOs made more transparent -
With a view to impart greater transparency and expeditiousness in the sanctioning of Grants-in-Aid to Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), the process of submission of application and subsequent process has been made online mandatory from the financial year 2014-15.
The following corrective steps have been taken/proposed to be taken to check embezzlement of Government grants by NGOs:
i. Funds are released to the NGOs after receipt of recommendation of the State Level Grant-in-Aid Committee, Inspection Reports, Utilization Certificate and Audited Accounts.
ii. Surprise inspections of the NGOs by the officers of the Ministry.
iii. The schemes/programmes implemented through NGOs are also monitored by respective State Government / UT Administrations.
iv. The Ministry sponsors evaluation studies from time to time through independent evaluation agencies, inter alia, to check proper utilization of funds by the implementing agencies under various Schemes/Programmes.
v. In the event of proven misappropriation of fund by an NGO, the Ministry initiates action to blacklist the NGO.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Shri Vijay Sampla in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha here today.
Source- Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment -27-November-2014
Government of India
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment -27-November-2014
Govt. launches E-Visa scheme for 43 countries
Union Home Minister & Tourism Minister launch landmark Tourist Visa on Arrival Enabled with Electronic Travel Authorization Scheme
Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh, along with Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism & Culture and Minister of State for Civil Aviation, launched the Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVOA) enabled with Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) Scheme at a function here today.
The TVoA enabled with ETA Scheme will facilitate nationals of 43 countries to travel to India for tourism for a short stay of 30 days. The countries are Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Djibouti, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kingdom of Tongo, Laos, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Mexico, Myanmar, New Zealand, Niue, Norway, Oman, Palestine, Papua & New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea (i.e. South Korea), Republic of Marshall Islands, Republic of Nauru, Republic of Palau, Russia, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Thailand, Tuvalu, UAE, Ukraine, USA, Vietnam and Vanuatu.
The TVoA enabled with ETA would enable the prospective visitor to apply for an Indian Visa from his/her home country online without visiting the Indian Mission and also pay the visa fee online. Once approved, the applicant will receive an email authorising him/her to travel to India and he/she can travel with a print out of this authorization. On arrival, the visitor has to present the authorisation to the immigration authorities who would then stamp the entry into the country.
Launching the scheme, the Union Home Minister said that India has been the centre of attraction for people around the world since times immemorial. He said that travelers since ancient times have been drawn to India to experience its philosophy and spiritualism. Shri Rajnath Singh said that India also has a unique advantage in tourism sector owing to its geographical location and that no other country offers such abundance of diversity in weather conditions. On the occasion, the Union Home Minister assured the tourism industry representatives that he will ensure a safe and secure environment for visiting foreign tourists.
The Minister of State (Independent Charge) Tourism & Culture and Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Dr. Mahesh Sharma said the launch of the TVoA enabled with ETA scheme was a dream cum true for the entire Tourism Industry of India and is bound to positively impact the economy of the country. He said that the government's objective is to boost tourism to our country and the implementation of the TVoA enabled with ETA scheme will send out a clear message that India is serious in making travel to the country easy. He said that the Tourism Ministry, carrying forward the Prime Minister's mission, has embarked on the 'Swachh Bharat, Swachh Samarak' (Clean India, Clean Monuments) campaign.
The Union Tourism Minister thanked all concerned, including officials from Ministry of Home Affairs, Bureau of Immigration, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Civil Aviation, National Informatics Center, Airports Authority of India and private Airport Operators for their wholehearted cooperation in the launching of the TVoA enabled with ETA scheme.
This facility is available to Foreigners whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sightseeing, short duration medical treatment, casual business visit, casual visit to meet friends or relatives etc. and not valid for any other purpose/activities. This will allow entry into India within 30 days from the date of approval of ETA and will be valid for 30 days stay in India from the date of arrival in India. The TVoA enabled with ETA cannot be availed more than twice in a calendar year. The facility will be available at nine International airports in the country namely Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Goa.
The facility will encourage people to travel with short-term planning, take via routes while travelling to other countries and bring family members while on business visits. The information and instructions for the TVoA enabled with ETA is available on the link below:
https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html
In the recent past the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has taken several steps to ease the Visa regime and facilitate the inflow of foreign tourists into the country. Major initiatives include abolishing the restriction of two months' gap between two consecutive visits of a foreigner, introduction of Visa fees payment through debit and credit cards, increasing the number of airports for TVoA from four to nine, simplification of Visa form, introduction of local language help for foreigners in filling online visa application form, removing the requirement of filling of Departure (Embarkation) card by outgoing foreigners and Arrival (Disembarkation) card by incoming Indians and the simplification of Embarkation/Disembarkation Cards, besides the introduction of Collective Landing Permit (CLP).
Source- Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Home Affairs
Government of India
Ministry of Home Affairs
Press Release Dated – 27-November-2014
Establishment of Jan Lokpal: Govt pleads to SC to transfer all petitions from HC to SC
S. 2(15) Proviso/ 10(23C) (iv): Meaning of expression "not involving the carrying of any activity of profit" explained in detail
(i) The assessee trust is doing only one activity of printing and publishing of newspaper. This activity was held to be of charitable in nature by the Privy Council in the Trustees of The Tribune Press Lahore 7 ITR 415. In this decision it was observed that though the assessee cannot be termed as an educational institute but it was held to be a trust providing service in the nature of general public utility.
(ii) Now the question arises to what an extent this fetter of "not involving the carrying of any activity for profit" would operate. In this regard Ld. Counsel vehemently relied on the decision of Hon'ble Delhi High Court in the case of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India Vs. The Director General of Income Tax (Exemptions) 347 ITR 99 (Delhi) wherein the new provision to section 2(15) which put a rider on other objects of general public utility have been analyzed and it has been held that unless and until such activity leads to generation of profit, the exemption cannot be denied. The decision in the case of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India Vs. The Director General of Income Tax (Exemptions) was rendered by Hon'ble Delhi High Court wherein institute was mainly engaged in the regulatory functions of controlling the profession of Chartered Accountants and holding of coaching classes of the students was only an ancillary activity.
(iii) From the above i t becomes absolutely clear that after insertion of expression "not involving the carrying of any activity for profit" the decision of Privy Council in the case of Trustees of The Tribune (supra) cannot be followed.
(iv) The words 'not involving the carrying of any activity of profit' were omitted by Finance Act, 1983 from 1.4.1984, this amendment was in fact consequential to the amendment made in section 11 of the Income Tax Act by section 6(b) of Finance Act, which made the profits and gains of business in the case of charitable or religions trust and institution taxable under that section, if they were carrying on any business. A more elaborated proviso has been again added u/s 2(15) which has been extracted above and which makes it clear that if a Trust is engaged in the advancement of any other object of general public utility, it cannot be called for charitable purpose, if it involves carrying on any activity in the nature of trade, commerce or business.
(v) The decision by the Privy Council was rendered in 1939 and lot of water has flown in the Ganges thereafter, may be at that time publication of newspaper could be construed as advancement of general public utility. However, in the present days a great competition is there in media and thousands of newspapers are being published and each one of them is competing with the others to increase circulation. In fact, the main purposes of these newspapers and magazines is to sell advertisements and to earn profits and for that they are subsidizing the cost of newspapers. For example a paper X may be costing after publication at Rs. 10/- but it is sold at Rs. 2/- just to increase the circulation and such subsidized cost is recovered through revenue collected from advertisements which is generally much more than the sale price of the particular daily newspaper or magazine or weekly or monthly magazine. Such newspaper in today's world had to face further competition from television where again hundreds of news channels have been launched, both this media are facing further competition from the internet and social media. So every organization is trying to sell its media reports by various means adopting various techniques i .e. in case of internet all the search engines including Google or Yahoo and social medial like face book are free of cost and whole of revenue is collected through advertisements.
(vi) In the above background in the case of assessee it was found from the income and expenditure account that assessee has collected only a sum of Rs. 17.49 crores from sale of newspaper and in addition to Rs. 3.07 crores from subscription of such dailies and Rs. 2.39 crores from sale of clippings. Against this revenue of approx 21 cores, the assessee has earned advertisement revenue of Rs. 124.87 crores. This itself shows that assessee is earning profits though figures for original corpus at the time of established of trust are not available before us because it is a very old Trust but as on 31.3.2009, the balance in corpus account is Rs. 120.71 cores and we are very sure that at the time of establishment of trust, the value of corpus must have been only in lakhs of rupees, therefore, it makes it absolutely clear that as observed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Sole Trustee, Loka Shikshana Trust Vs CIT (supra) the assessee has definitely earned profits. This fact further get fortified from the fact that assessee has received interest of more than Rs. 11.38 cores on its fixed assets. This fact again shows that assessee is earning profits. One more question arises whether the exemption is to be granted automatically once the assessee trust has been notified by the CBDT for the purpose of section 10(23C) (iv). The answer is that even if the approval has been granted, income can still be assessed if it is found that proviso to first provision of clause 15 of section (2) is applicable.
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