Final tax assessment of Ramdev trusts begins
The Revenue department has begun a final tax assessment of the trusts associated with yoga guru Ramdev after service and I-T officials recently conducted special probes on these enterprises for alleged tax evasion. Both the revenue collection arms of finance ministry's income tax and service tax departments have recently issued notices to these trusts which are now being contested by Ramdev.
Officials of Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) and Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) are assessing the income and service tax liability of these trusts run by Ramdev. "An inquiry has been initiated to ascertain the Service Tax liability on Ramdev's trusts. Prima facie, there were some commercial activities like sale of coupons to participate in yoga camps and sales of products (claimed to be of medicinal use) by Patanjali Yoga Peeth run by him.
The department is assessing them," a source said. Officials said information related to the sponsors and the source of money used in conducting various programmes across the country by Ramdev's trusts were being collected. When contacted, Ramdev's spokesperson S K Tijarawala claimed the trusts are exempted from tax as they are doing charitable activities. The I-T department, in May, has also slapped a notice of Rs 58 crore on the sale of the ayurvedic medicines.
The Service Tax department has also demanded Rs 5 crore on 'yog shivirs'.