Direct Tax Code seen losing out on relief to poor

Giving their feedback on the DTC to the Finance Ministry, senior tax officials from Mumbai and Ahmedabad have said that substituting ‘charitable’ with ‘welfare’ could widen the ambit of tax relief and benefit even those not-for-profit organisations which do not focus on welfare of poor.
Arguing that the word ‘welfare’ would dilute the element of benevolence, essential for charitable purposes, they said, original definition for charities (as in Income Tax Act, 1961) should be included in the new tax code.

“In the present I-T Act, the exemptions of providing relief to common man were categorised as income derived from property held for charitable or religious purposes while the new tax code calls it as computation of income of non-profit organisations,” a senior official said.