Indore: ₹ 3.50 Cr I-T Demand Raised On Ranjeet Hanuman Temple Quashed

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): In a significant decision, the income tax commissioner, appeal (ITC-A) has quashed the income tax demand of Rs 3.50 cr. raised by the Income Tax Department against the administrator of the Ranjeet Hanuman temple of the city on Thursday. The decision of the ITC-A is being considered as an exemplar for other temples facing similar cases.

CA Abhay Sharma, pleading on behalf of the administrator of Shri Ranjeet Hanuman Temple, informed that basically this case pertains to the deposit of demonetised notes in the bank account of the temple during demonetisation declared on November 8, 2017 wherein people and institutions were allowed to deposit demonetised currency notes in the banks till December 31, 2017.

The temple deposited demonetised notes worth about Rs 2.50 cr. in its bank account. This led the Income Tax Department (ITO) to issue a show cause notice to the administrator of the temple, who is supposed to be the district collector on February 2018.

On behalf of the administrator CA Sharma filed a reply to ITD which was not satisfied with the reply and the income tax officer (ITO) assessed an income of Rs 2,00,65,232 and raised the demand with tax, penalty and interest amounting to Rs 2,23,88,730 on November 28, 2019. Till that time the temple was not registered as charitable trust and society. 

CA Sharma said that then Administrator of the Temple Collector Lokesh Jatav handed over the case to him in 2018 and after a number of hearings the CIT Appeal delivered the verdict on Thursday.