29K Punjab farmers compensated for not burning stubble I-T tribunal dismisses Young India petition

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government has disbursed ₹19 crore among 29,343 non-basmati cultivating small and marginal farmers who did not burn paddy residue, a senior official said on Friday.

The government has decided to give ₹2,500 per acre as compensation to small and marginal farmers who have refrained from burning paddy straw, a major contributor to air pollution in the region.

Agriculture secretary Kahan Singh Pannu said the compensation has been released directly to the bank accounts of the farmers as per the list supplied by the field officers.

As many as 85,000 applications have been received till now, Pannu said, adding the last date for submission of these applications is November 30.

“Every application has to be verified by village panchayat and then by revenue authorities to ensure that only the non-basmati cultivating farming families owning land up to 5 acres and having not burnt any part of the field, are recommended for compensation,” he said in an official release.

Pannu warned that any sarpanch or revenue officer wrongly recommending any applicant would face stern action.

NEWDELHI: Calling it a commercial organisation, the Income-Tax Appellate Tribunal on Friday dismissed Young India’s petition to treat it a charitable trust.

The petition of Young India had challenged the order of Income-Tax Commissioner that cancelled its registration as a charitable organisation from the assessment year 2011-12.

“The assessee at the time of seeking registration itself has concealed the material facts and not disclosed the entire events of transactions which had undergone from the date of inception of assessee company till the grant of registration and one of the conditions on which the registration has been granted stood violated from the day one...,” the order said. It said, “no genuine activities have been carried out by the assessee either in furtherance of its objects or otherwise, which can be held to be for charitable purpose because one of the so called purpose of acquiring AJL [Associated Journals Ltd] was not carried out at all.”

“We have discussed and given our categorical findings that till the grant of registration and surrender made by the assessee, no worthwhile activities were carried out by AJL...what it turns out to be is that the assessee has acquired AJL, a company that owns property worth hundreds of crores from which it had been enjoying rental income,” it said.

The tribunal said, “AJL, which had been earning rental income, cannot be held that its activities were aligned with the objects of the assessee company or through AJL; it was carrying out activities in pursuance of its objects qua that period. Hence, in that sense, the assessee’s activities cannot be held to be genuine. Thus, the cancellation of registration u/s 12AA by the Ld. CIT (E) from A.Y. 2011-12 is upheld.”

A request for response from the Congress remained unanswered as of press time.