Private universities can claim income- tax exemption only on two conditions: Firstly, an educational institution or a university must be solely for the purpose of education and without any profit motive. Secondly, it must be wholly or substantially financed by the government. Both conditions must be satisfied under Section 10( 23C) ( iiiab) of the Income Tax Act before exemption can be granted, the Supreme Court ruled in the case, Visvesvaraya Technological University vs CIT. The university’s claim under this provision was rejected by the revenue authorities, leading to the appeal. The court noted that during a short period of a decade ( 1999- 2010) the university had generated a huge surplus of about ? 500 crore collecting fees under different heads. “ The expenditure incurred represented only a minuscule part of the fees collected,” the judgment observed.
None of the benefits granted to the university has gone to the students. It expanded from 64 engineering colleges to 194. The government grants were meagre ( about one per cent), the Supreme Court said, concluding that “ the university is neither directly nor even substantially financed by the government so as to be entitled to exemption from payment of income tax.”
Business Standard New Delhi,2nd May 2016
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