Indians in US, other countries to get tax concession

Manash Pratim Bhuyan and Priyanka Tikoo
New Delhi, July 4 (PTI) It is what you may call charity
with benefit.
Indians, staying in the US, could in next three months
avail tax concession on the money they will spend on social
welfare projects at their native places in India.
Under the 'India Development Foundation for Overseas
Indians', an initiative of Ministry of Overseas Indians, they
will get tax exemption if they want to build schools, primary
health centres and other infrastructure in their villages and
places of origin in India.
The Ministry has already started the process of
registering the foundation in the US and it will be in place
in next three months, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar
Ravi told PTI in an interview.
After the US, the ministry will register the foundation
in other countries, including the UK and the Gulf. According
to official data, there are about 24 million Indians overseas.
The foundation, a 'not-for-profit' trust being set up
under the Indian Trust Act, 1882, by the Ministry, will be
the nodal agency to implement the projects across the country
in cooperation with state governments and selected NGOs.
Designed to help in rural infrastructure development, the
minister said his ministry would not only target millionaires
or rich NRIs for contribution but the average Indian diaspora
who want to give back to the society.
"I want the ordinary NRIs, those who can contribute USD
1,000 a year, to contribute to the corpus. Your village or
your panchayat may not have a primary health centre or a
primary school, no buildings maybe. So, you can jointly
contribute and say specifically what you want," Ravi said.
The fund would be concentrated on two issues -- hospitals
and primary school buildings -- and may be self-help groups
at a later stage.
"Our aim is to mobilise resources of overseas Indians.
There are thousands and lakhs of places where there is no
school and primary health centres. The contributions will be
utilised for building schools, health centres and for
encouraging micro credit," Ravi said.
The setting up of the foundation was announced by Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh while inaugurating the sixth Pravasi
Bharatiya Divas at New Delhi on January 8, 2008. PTI