PANAJI
Income Tax department of the Government of India through the assistant commissioner (exemptions), circle-1, Mangaluru has addressed a letter to the Archdiocese of Goa and Daman calling for specific account information regarding cash balance as well as in-hand currency in the now demonetised notes as on November 8.
The request for cash and account details has been made under Section 133 (6) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 which gives certain I-T officers wide powers of investigation including the power to seek information even from outsiders.
In the letter, of which The Goan possesses a copy, Assistant Commissioner of I-T (exemptions) CB Suresh Kumar has directed the Central Fund of Archdiocese of Goa and Daman (CBDT) to collect information on urgent basis regarding cash balance available with trusts, societies and other institutions under it.
The Archdiocese has been specifically directed to furnish the details of cash balance held by the trust as well as all institutions and branches as on November 8.
The Archdiocese is also required to furnish self-attested copy of cash book of all the institutions under it as on November 7, 8 and 9.
The letter further directed the The Archdiocese to certify the copy of the closing entry of the cash book as on November 8. A photocopy of this certified copy along with the declaration has to be submitted and balance as on March 31 has to be enclosed.
The letter dated November 18, which was received by the CBDT on November 21, states, “As the matter is of utmost concern, scanned copies of relevant pages of cash book and declaration should be emailed to this office by November 21.”
Complicating the mammoth task further, CBDT has also been requested to declare the number of notes of denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 held by it as on day closing November 8.
A church official has the receipt of the letter and has stated that all steps are being taken to meet with the request.
“Taking note of the I-T letter, church authorities convened a meeting of some deans, priests and a few lay people from various parishes on Wednesday evening in this regard,” a senior priest told The Goan.
In turn, some deans convened meetings with parish priests in their respective deaneries on Thursday and apprised them about the requirements put forth by the I-T department.
It was further learnt that the priests had initiated a contact strategy and that they are using all means possible to ensure that the concerned Church officials are in the know of the requirements so that the details can be made available to CBDT at the earliest.
“All the information required will be duly submitted to the I-T department and we will also explain the reasons for the delay,” the priest added pointing out that it was not possible to put together the vast amount of data in less than a day as the letter dated November 18 was received only on November 21.
