Raj govt seeks tax exemption to mid-day meal trust from Centre

Jaipur, Nov 20 (UNI) The interest of lakhs of school children has been adversely affected due to the decision of the Union Government not to give exemption in income tax to the trust formed for the mid-day meal scheme in Rajasthan, according to a state government spokesman.

The government had constituted the trust with the objective of securing the co-operation of donors and private institutions to provide nutritional supplements to the school children under the mid-day meal scheme.

The state government had been requesting the Union government to provide exemption to the amount collected in the trust under section 35 of the Income Tax for the last one and half years, the spokesman said, adding though the Centre had been providing tax exemption to such trusts constituted for public welfare works, it had not accorded such exemption to the trust constituted by the Rajasthan government.

The spokesman alleged that on the one hand the Union government talked of promoting the public-private partnership but in the context of the state, it had taken a decision contrary to the state policy.

The spokesman pointed out that this discrimination was being done even as the mid-day meal scheme had been functioning as a model scheme in the whole state which was even appreciated by the Planning Commission.

UNI