AR Rahman gets notice from Madras High Court for evading income tax on Rs 3.47 crore
Chennai: The Madras High Court on Friday issued notice to music composer A R Rahman on a petition filed by the Income Tax department alleging that he used a foundation in which he is the managing trustee as a conduit to evade tax and routed Rs three crore plus income to it.
The Income Tax Department moved the High Court challenging the ruling of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal here that set aside the order of the Principal Commissioner of Income Tax in Chennai.
A division bench of justices TS Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan recorded the submissions made by the IT department and issued notice to the music composer.
According to senior standing counsel for the Income Tax department T R Senthil Kumar, in the assessment year 2011- 12, Rahman received income to the tune of Rs 3.47 crore in connection with an agreement made with the UK-based Libra Mobiles.
The contract was to compose exclusive ringtones for the company and the term of the contract was for three years.
As per the contract, Rahman instructed the company to pay his remuneration directly to the foundation managed by him, the department said.
"The taxable income must be received by Rahman and after due deduction of tax, it can be transferred to the trust. But the same cannot be routed through the trust as income to the charitable trust is exempted under the Income Tax Act," the counsel said.
According to the petition filed by the Income Tax department, Rahman after receiving the IT notice had moved the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in Chennai and the tribunal in September 2019 had held that the government of India had accorded "post facto approval" with respect to this contribution.
The tribunal ruled in favour of Rahman finding that the amount was not taxable.
The petition said the order of the appellate tribunal is "erroneous in law" and opposed to facts and circumstances of the case.
Rahman had received Rs 3,47,77,200 from Libra Mobile during 2010-11 in his individiual capacity as an artiste which must have been considered for taxation and this was not considered by the Assessing Officer in the reassessment order.
The receipts by the trust are professional fees paid to the assessee for the services rendered by him.
However, the assessee has not admitted these professional receipts in his return of income for the assessment year 2011-12.
Instead of receiving the consideration as professional charges in his individual capacity, the assessee has got these payments diverted to A R Rahman Foundation which is registered as a tax-exempt entity under the Income Tax Act.
The amount that must have been received by Rahman as professional fee has been passed off as "donation" to the foundation.
The tribunal failed to consider that the assessee who is also the managing trustee of A R Rahman Foundation has used it as a "conduit" for accounting his own untaxed income, the plea said.
The Assessing Officer had not made any attempt to examine the various clauses of agreement nor tried to make enquiry to ascertain facts.
Also, the AO did not gather any material during the course of reassessment proceedings to come to the very same conclusion arrived at during the original assessment.
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UP: 6 of family killed in oxygen cylinder blast in Bulandshahr house
Bulandshahr (UP) (PTI): Six people died and three were injured following an oxygen cylinder blast which led to a partial house collapse in the Sikandrabad area of Bulandshahr district, officials said on Tuesday.
District Magistrate of Bulandshahr Chandra Prakash Singh said the incident occurred on Monday evening in the house of one Riyazuddin in which around 19 people, including women and children, were living.
Riyazuddin was involved in shuttering work -- the process of giving support and stability to concrete during construction work before it becomes solid.
The initial death toll was five which increased to six in the early hours of Tuesday. City Magistrate Chandra Prakash Priyadarshi said six bodies -- three male and three female -- were brought to the district hospital.
According to officials, those dead were identified as Riyazuddin alias Raju (50), his wife Rukhsana (45), Salman (16), Tamanna (24), Hivja (3) and Aas Mohammed (26).
DM Singh said, "A cylinder blast occurred in the Ashapuri colony of Sikandrabad between 8.30 pm and 9 pm leading to the collapse of the entire house." He said eight residents were taken to the hospital while others were safe.
Additional Director General of Police, Meerut Zone, Dhruva Kant Thakur said information about the casualties was received, after which rescue and relief operations were launched immediately.
Personnel of the NDRF, fire brigade, police, medical and the local administration were involved in the rescue work, he said.
"Chief Minister (Yogi Adityanath) took immediate cognisance of the incident. We were sent to the spot and directions were issued that good quality treatment should be given to the injured persons," the DM said.
About the rescue operation, he said the iron beams of the roof of the house had to be pried open using gas cutters. At the same time, an excavator was pressed into action to clear the debris.
On Tuesday morning, Senior Superintendent of Police of Bulandshahr Shlok Kumar told PTI that the rescue operation had been completed at the site.
Although the surviving family members have said that no one was trapped under the debris anymore, the rescue teams took all precautions while carrying out their work, he added.
"A total of six persons have died and another three suffered injuries in the blast because of which the front portion of the double-storey house collapsed," Kumar said.
The wife of Riyazuddin was undergoing treatment for an ailment at a hospital and was recently brought back to the home, where the family had brought an oxygen cylinder along with its accessories to help in the post hospitalisation care, the SSP said.
"This oxygen cylinder exploded. The cylinder, its nozzle, etc have been recovered from the debris," the district police chief told PTI.
The bodies have been sent for post-mortem and further legal proceedings in the matter are underway, he added.
