Yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s trusts have been told they owe the government Rs. 58 crore in taxes against their income, largely from the sale of ayurvedic medicines. The Income Tax Department has calculated the taxes against an income of Rs. 120 crore from commercial activities.
Baba Ramdev, who is leading a campaign against black money in the country, heads an organisation that runs the trusts which manages the manufacture and sale of ayurvedic medicines in India and abroad.
His trusts had been exempt because they had been treated as charitable organisations.
But the Income Tax department after a new audit allegedly concluded that the sale of medicines must be treated as a commercial venture.
“Since inception we have been doing charity in terms of providing medical relief and other such activities to the needy. We have challenged the I-T department’s notice at the
Commissioner of I-T (Appeals) office and we know that we will get justice,” Baba Ramdev’s spokesperson S K Tijarawala told the Press Trust of India.
Baba Ramdev’s trusts and his organisation are also being investigated for alleged foreign exchange violations
Baba Ramdev had last year declared his business empire to be worth more than Rs. 1,100 crore. The capital involving the four trusts run by him totalled Rs. 426.19 crore while the expenditure incurred on them amounted to Rs. 751.02 crore.
