Local News
Tax concession to overseas Indians
NEW DELHI, JULY 4. 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 said 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 $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.
During a 2-day visit to Melbourne, the Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, Mr. Vayalar Ravi, had a meeting with Premier John Brumby.
The discussion covered a range of issues affecting the Indian community in Victoria, and especially the Indian students here. Minister Ravi acknowledged the usefulness of the dialogue between India and Australia on these issues as also the positive impact of the various initiatives taken by the Victorian government to enhance the safety and security of Indian students.
He however urged the Premier not to discontinue or scale-down these initiatives, and also to take further action in areas relating to transport concessions, availability of suitable accommodation, regulation of education institutions, and providing employment opportunities to graduating students (especially those not covered by the new SOL) through state sponsored migration and other avenues.
Minister Ravi also visited Victoria University where he interacted with Indian students and heard from the VU authorities and the Victoria Police on Operation Guardian and on other initiatives aimed at improving the safety of Indian students and their quality of life in Melbourne.
Minister Ravi also met with Education, Skills and Workforce Participation Minister, Bronwyn Pike to reiterate the issues.
During his visit, Minister Ravi also interacted with representatives of the Indian community in Melbourne and visited the International Student Care Service, set up by the Victorian Government.
