the goan I network
PANAJI
Insufficiencies related to its income-tax filings has left the Entertainment Society of Goa, the intermediary to provide logistics and other organisational support for the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), an unregistered and therefore legally a non-entity since 2014.
The State’s Registrar General of Societies has kept the application for renewal of the registration certificate of the ESG pending as it has been unable to furnish its I-T returns.
ESG Vice-chairman, Subhash Phaldesai, however, played down the issue and dismissed it as a mere “technical matter”.
“ESG had filed for exemption under I-T rules since we are a not-for-profit organisation. However, in response to that plea the I-T authorities
filed a case which is currently sub-judice. We could therefore not file our returns and in turn the Registrar has not renewed our registration certificate,” Phaldesai said while speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Science Film festival inaugural on Wednesday.
“The issue will be resolved in due course,” Phaldesai, a former Sanguem legislator who was appointed Vice-chairman of ESG a few months ago, said in the presence of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who is also chairman of ESG and was chief guest at the Science Film Festival inauguration.
The ESG was the brainchild of former chief minister, the late Manohar Parrikar. It was set up in 2004 as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, to serve as a special purpose vehicle and shoulder the State’s responsibilities towards organisation of IFFI.
Meanwhile, Phaldesai said contrary to the general perception that it is flush with funds due to State government patronage, the ESG in reality does not receive any funds or grants from the State exchequer.
“We don’t even get a salary grant. We earn our revenues from events we organise for government departments and private parties. Even for IFFI, we deploy our entire human resources gratis,” Phaldesai said.
