The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified the Nationwide Mission for Clear Ganga (NMCG) as an authority below clause 46A of part 10 of the Earnings Tax Act, 1961, granting it exemptions from taxes on revenue. NMCG implements the Union authorities’s bold Namami Gange scheme.
The notification was issued on April 22, 2025. The clause permits tax exemption for any revenue arising to a physique, authority, board, belief, or fee, not being an organization, which has been established or constituted by or below a Central or State Act for specified functions.
“In train of the powers conferred…the Central Authorities hereby notifies the “Nationwide Mission for Clear Ganga”, an authority constituted below the Surroundings (Safety) Act, 1986 (No.29 of 1986), for the needs of the mentioned clause,” states the notification.
“This notification shall be efficient from the evaluation 12 months 2024-25, topic to the situation that the assessee continues to be an authority constituted below the Surroundings (Safety) Act, 1986 (No.29 of 1986), with a number of of the needs laid out in sub-clause (a) of clause (46A) of part 10 of the Earnings-tax Act,” it reads.
CBDT, which comes below the Ministry of Finance, has additionally allowed NMCG’s utility searching for condonation of the delay in submitting revised return of revenue for evaluation years 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24. The transfer will permit NMCG to avail of revenue tax exemptions for earlier evaluation years.
CBDT’s transfer got here after The Indian Categorical highlighted NMCG’s tax woes in its report— “Grappling with I-T notices, Clear Ganga Mission says ‘faceless evaluation course of has made issues tougher”—printed final month. Following this, the Jal Shakti Ministry officers took up the matter with their counterparts within the Ministry of Finance and held a spherical of conferences, say sources.
The report highlighted that NMCG, going through tax calls for amounting to Rs 243.74 crore, contested the I-T division’s evaluation orders and was within the technique of submitting appeals. The mission had requested CBDT to permit it to revise its returns.
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Initially registered as a society on August 12, 2011, below the Societies Registration Act, 1860, NMCG was later upgraded to an ‘authority’ on October 7, 2016, below the Surroundings (Safety) Act, 1986. Regardless of this transition, its PAN remained categorised as an Affiliation of Individuals (AOP). This led to scrutiny by the I-T division’s software program, which flagged it as a high-income entity, leading to repeated tax notices.
The difficulty was raised in joint conferences of NMCG’s Audit Overview Committee (ARC) and Finances Overview Committee (BRC). On the latest assembly on February 7, NMCG officers highlighted the continued tax issues.
“Since NMCG’s PAN is within the capability of ‘Affiliation of Individuals’, NMCG has been receiving quite a lot of notices from IT division yearly. Whereas the notices for AY 2023-24 & 2024-25 have been resolved, two main calls for of AY 2022-23 amounting to Rs 243.74 crore are pending. NMCG has contested the orders and is within the technique of submitting appeals in opposition to the evaluation order,” acknowledged the minutes of the assembly circulated on March 11.
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